A dolphin that had been stranded in a remote New Jersey creek for a week died as rescuers tried to save it, officials said.
Experts from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center and wildlife authorities monitored the Bottlenose dolphin daily while it was trapped in Riggins Ditch since the call first came into their hotline on June 5, the organization said on social media and in a news release.
Local people who use the waterway have reported seeing dolphins in the area in the past, "however this animal was alone and had not moved out of the area," the center said in the release. The area itself is challenging because of how remote it is, with the nearest boat ramp for small boats being almost 10 miles across the bay, officials said.
A photo shows the dolphin's dorsal fin protruding through the water's surface in the estuary.
Rescuers and authorities had to wait for "the weather, wind, and tidal conditions to align for a safe operation for both the dolphin and the first responders," the center said.
Those conditions finally arrived the morning of June 12, and a team of rescuers from the center and several fire rescue and wildlife departments coordinated a rescue attempt, the center said.
The rescue team consisted of more than two dozen people and six boats who would first try herding the dolphin out of the area to avoid capturing and physically handling it, the center said.
"Captures in the water are high risk as they pose a significant danger to both the dolphin as well as the responders," officials said.
When those less-invasive tactics failed, rescuers decided to try to capture the dolphin from the water as a last resort, officials said.
Rescuers cast a net across the creek from the boats and maneuvered it around the dolphin. Then they coordinated their movements to secure the six-foot-long dolphin inside a stretcher and supported it upright above the water so it could still breathe as the boat brought the dolphin to shore, officials said.
Then, using a tractor with a forklift attached, they lifted the dolphin from the stretcher to a stretcher frame on a bridge.
The photos show the various stages of the rescue attempt.
"As the team was preparing to load the stretcher into the Stranding Response vehicle, the adolescent male dolphin stopped breathing," officials said. "MMSC's veterinarian and Stranding Team immediately started emergency medical protocols, however despite their extraordinary efforts, they were unable to resuscitate the dolphin."
Rescuers took the dolphin to the New Jersey Animal Health and Diagnostic Lab for a necropsy, and plan to share updates when available.
"Out of habitat cetaceans are one of the most difficult scenarios in marine mammal rescue. As animals that live in the open ocean, the more confined habitats of back bay estuaries are foreign to them," the center said. "Human interactions are also a stressor for cetaceans. Both of these factors cause the animal immense physiological stress, ultimately making the chances of rescue and survival slim."
Another dolphin was stranded about 40 miles northeast in Brigantine earlier in the week, the center said. That dolphin also did not survive the ordeal.
The Both cases, despite ending tragically, brought out the best of humanity with first responders and Good Samaritans tirelessly working side by side with our team to do what they could to help these beautiful dolphins," the center said. "The selflessness shown by the community who came together for the love of these two dolphins was moving.
Several people thanked rescuers for trying to save the dolphins in the comments on Facebook and Instagram.
One person commented under a photo of the dolphin on the stretcher that they wondered whether the rescue was necessary - or whether it might have been "best to let nature take its course."
Rescuers explained that the young dolphin wouldn't have been able to survive on its own without a pod of dolphins, much less in freshwater.
"The fact that the animal was a lone adolescent without a pod of other dolphins that remained in the same area for one week in a brackish water environment was the cause for concern," rescuers said. "The animal has been transported to the lab for necropsy, and on visual inspection so far the animal is underweight and has lesions likely from exposure to freshwater."
Cumberland County is about a 90-mile drive south from Trenton.
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