Injured baby dolphin found off Comino
When Christian Ellul Vincenti set sail for Comino yesterday, little did he think he would come across a baby dolphin in distress.
“At first, we thought it was dead because it was floating on its side but when we moved closer we realised that its tail was badly mangled. It was heartbreaking,” Mr Ellul Vincenti of Madliena said. The 25-year-old was with his parents when he spotted the mammal at about 12.30 p.m.
“We thought there was rope around its tail but when we looked closer we realised that it was injured. It was almost cut off and looked like it was injured with a propeller,” he said.
Luckily, Mr Ellul Vincenti ran into the dolphin on the same day The Times published a story about a 2.5-metre long dead dolphin that was found in a cave at the foot of Mellieħa cliffs. He rang the telephone number for conservation group Nature Trust.
“We circled around the baby dolphin for one and a half hours until Animal Welfare arrived to protect it from speedboats and two Gozo Channel ferries, which hooted at us to get out of the way,” he said.
Animal welfare officers monitored the dolphin for a few hours as removing it from the water is considered to be a risky, last-resort procedure. However, the rescue was called off last night because of adverse weather conditions.
For information on what to do when spotting an injured animal visit www.naturetrustmalta.org. The rescue team can be contacted on 9942 2086/9942 208.
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Toni Muscat
Jul 18th 2012, 06:31
This Baby can be saved . It has been done before
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j8u6RG8y-w&feature=player_embedded#!
Can some one contact : http://www.seewinter.com/
Maybe they can advise someone on what to do
Sarah Muscat
Jul 17th 2012, 20:55
First and foremost before commenting I like to get facts right.this was not a baby but a juvenile.secondly, since you all seem to be experts on the case why not roll up your sleeves and volunteer with Nature trust and get things done rather than commenting on matters you have no clue about?if you are all pro active, I'm sure that organisations like nature trust can do with a helping hand to get more things done for the environment.
Sean Azzopardi
Jul 15th 2012, 12:43
and now what?
B. Jones
Jul 14th 2012, 15:34
There was a recent report on international TV that a young dolphin, who lost his back fin due to an accident, got a fin prosthesis and is living "happily" in a wild life park somewhere in America.
What really surprised me was, that on one hand there was no problem with digging out turtle eggs and relocating them somewhere else...though there was the risk of killing some baby turtles during that procedure....
....and on the other hand Nature Trust opted not to get the baby dolphin out of the water to treat its wounds. Surely the dolphin has no chance to survive with an injured back fin as stated in this article.
Perhaps a spokes person of Nature Trust can give an explanation to this decision.
Ivan Falzon
Jul 14th 2012, 15:00
i didn t know that one way to save an injured dolphin is to monitor it for a few hours. seems really easy and effortless anyone can do it. thanks for the tip!
did this innovative method reap the desired result or did the dolphin die ??
James Tyrrell
Jul 14th 2012, 13:12
"Animal welfare officers monitored the dolphin for a few hours as removing it from the water is considered to be a risky, last-resort procedure." So basically they left a badly injured baby dolphin to die in agony. If removing it from the water for treatment was seen as a last-resort procedure what conditions had to be in place for that to happen?
D Mifsud
Jul 14th 2012, 10:14
.and what happened to the dolphin? was he left there in agony?
Please choose the reason of your report below: