Ocean Sentry
A disorientated little porpoise had to be rescued from Derbyhaven beach where it was stranded this (Tuesday) morning. The alert was raised by two passers by walking their dog.
‘The porpoise had beached itself and was completely out of the water,’ said Constable Alan Shimmin, who was called to the scene at around 1pm, when the tide was retreating very quickly.
He said by the time he arrived, someone with a bucket of water was trying to keep the porpoise hydrated, but it was ‘getting distressed’, he said, adding: ‘It was flipping like a fish does, she had cut her tail fin on the pebbles and was bleeding. We needed to get her off the beach.’
Two men sacrificed their jackets and they managed to use them to lift the porpoise into the water. But for 40 minutes – obviously still disorientated – they watched her swim near the shore.
Jenny Corrin, from the Manx Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, turned up as did Fiona Gell, a Wildlife Offices from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and a vet, Karl Bovenizer from Arg Beiyn.
Jenny said they couldn’t see anything wrong so they waded into the sea and put the porpoise onto a tarpaulin and dragged it into deeper water.
By this time, another porpoise had turned up. They managed to persuade both out to beyond the breakwater.
‘If it had been another 10 minutes, we would have struggled,’ said Constable Shimmin. By 3.30pm, the porpoise was in deep water – and safe!
(From iomtoday.co.im, Derbyhaven, UK, by Mel Wright)
