Skip to footer

Bullied dolphin hides from tormentors near Huntington Beach

A dolphin nicknamed 'Freddie,' spent the weekend swimming in shallow waters near Huntington Beach, in the Bolsa Chica wetlands. When the dolphin tried to leave, a pod of dolphins chased him back toward shore.

|
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
A dolphin, nicknamed 'Freddie,' swims in Orange County's Bolsa Chica wetlands near Huntington Beach, Calif., Marine mammal experts have decided to wait and see whether this dolphin that strayed into the shallow wetlands channel last Friday can find its way out.
  • By Stephen Ceasar and Bob Pool Los Angeles Times

| Los Angeles

Rescue crews who tried unsuccessfully over the weekend to guide a confused dolphin from the shallow waters of Orange County's Bolsa Chica wetlands decided Monday to hang back and allow the dolphin to return to the open sea at its own pace.

On Friday, human spectators scared the dolphin into staying in the wetlands, wildlife officials said. And on Saturday, another group of dolphins chased the stranded marine animal back into the wetlands as rescuers attempted to guide it back to the open sea.

Because the dolphin is not in immediate danger and there is plenty of food and water available in the wetlands, rescuers believe letting it decide when to leave is the best strategy, said Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue.

IN PICTURES: 20 Weirdest Fish in the Sea

"We're being very cautious about forcing it into harm's way," he said.

Wallerstein and five state Department of Fish and Game officers took to paddle boards Saturday morning to encourage the 7-foot dolphin to continue swimming to freedom after they noticed that it had swum several hundred yards closer to Huntington Harbour, which spills into the ocean.

The six paddleboarders managed to shoo the dolphin a few hundred yards closer to the harbor when the animal noticed another group of dolphins swimming in circles ahead of it.

Apparently frightened, the wayward dolphin turned around and dived deep into the harbor, swimming beneath the paddle-boarders and a bridge and back into the wetlands.

"There could be tension among the dolphin pod and dolphins can be very aggressive, even among themselves," he said.

Wallerstein also urged spectators to keep away from the dolphin so it does not become distracted or confused by people along the shoreline.

The dolphin is believed to be one of six that swam into the wetlands early last week. The other dolphins are believed to have returned to sea Thursday.

___

(c)2012 the Los Angeles Times

Distributed by MCT Information Services via Associated Press

IN PICTURES: 20 Weirdest Fish in the Sea

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Bullied dolphin hides from tormentors near Huntington Beach
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0430/Bullied-dolphin-hides-from-tormentors-near-Huntington-Beach
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe