California rescuers to aid dolphin's return to sea

A wayward dolphin swims in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands in Huntington Beach, California. Animal rescue and Fish & Game biologists opted to leave the dolphin in the channel in hopes that it will find its way out. 

    

A dolphin swims in Orange County's Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach, California. Marine mammal experts in Southern California have decided to wait and see whether this dolphin that strayed into a shallow wetlands channel can find its way out. The healthy, strong and fast dolphin will not let people get close, and officials say it could be harmful to the animal and rescuers if a capture attempt is made.

Wildlife experts are trying to return a healthy dolphin to the ocean after it became stranded by swimming into a narrow wetlands channel along the southern California coast. Rescuers are hoping that by Saturday morning the animal will have found its own way to open waters. If not, they said they might try to simply shoo it away because any attempt to capture it could be dangerous to the animal and rescuers.

The 7-foot-long, black-and-white common dolphin was spotted in a channel of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, circling in shallow waters as crowds grew along the banks and TV helicopters flew overhead.

A swimmer and two lifeguards on paddleboards entered the water to test the dolphin's reaction, and a decision was made to let the healthy, strong and fast dolphin try to find its own way out, said Dean Gomersall, animal care supervisor at the nonprofit Pacific Marine Mammal Center. Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue said the dolphin doesn't need a high tide to escape.

The wetlands is separated from the ocean by a wide beach and Pacific Coast Highway. Sea water flows in from Huntington Harbour on one end and an inlet cut through the beach on the opposite end. The dolphin, part of a small pod seen in the harbor earlier in the week, entered the channel through a hole in a tidal gate that separates the harbor from the marsh, Gomersall said. The other five dolphins remained in the harbor and may have to be coaxed back out to sea, Gomersall said.