Thursday, March 02, 2006

Dolphin dies due to tides

Extreme tides have been blamed for the death of a dolphin in the Derwent River, off Claremont, in Tasmania.

Two male dolphins became stranded on mud flats in Windermere Bay at 11:00am AEDT.
One of them was dead when wildlife officers arrived.

Andrew Irvine, from the Environment Department, believes the dolphins were chasing fish near the shore and became trapped as the tide went out quickly.

He says two officers saved the other one by dragging it back into the river.

"It's quite slippery mud. So they just sort of slid the animal along the mud. Got it into the shallow water and once the animal's in the water it can start cooling down," he said.

"That's probably it's biggest threat when it's on land, is overheating.

"So once it's in the water then they can stabilise it, make sure the animal can right itself and is breathing okay."

Quick "Facts about Dolphins"