A large rescue effort returned 19 stranded bottlenose dolphins to the water along Cape Cod beaches, offering Massachusetts responders a hopeful moment during an unusually intense stretch of marine mammal emergencies.
The operation happened a day after a separate mass stranding.
What happened?
According to The Boston Globe, the International Fund for Animal Welfare was called in after bottlenose dolphins came ashore on beaches in Brewster and Wellfleet.
Brian Sharp, the organization's director of marine mammal rescue, said each of the 19 dolphins was refloated.
The previous day brought an even bigger stranding. More than 30 bottlenose dolphins washed up on Cape Cod, as the Globe reported; about half a dozen died, and the tide carried others back out to sea.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said the event was the largest bottlenose dolphin stranding in Massachusetts history, surpassing the 2024 record of 11 bottlenose strandings during a summer period when 175 dolphins were rescued across three months, as the Globe reported.
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Why does it matter?
Repeated strandings are particularly troubling for bottlenose dolphins, a larger species that normally spends more time farther from shore.
IFAW spokesperson Stacey Hedman said the dolphins from the two events were "extremely likely" to be the same animals.
Putting stranded dolphins back in the water is not the same as ensuring they survive. Cape Cod's tides and coastal layout can make it hard for them to reach the open ocean again.
What's being done?
The immediate priority was getting the dolphins back into deeper water and preventing them from turning around and re-entering dangerous tidal areas.
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With evening low tide approaching, Sharp said rescuers were trying to "coax them out of Wellfleet Bay."
As The Boston Globe reported, officials placed satellite tags on two dolphins so their movements could be tracked and responders could see whether the two stranded groups came back together.
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