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.