'Local Boys' In Speedboat Free Dolphins
19/02/2009 19:34
Residents of Seal
Cove, N.L., venture out on to the ice Thursday
to help rescue a pod of white-beaked dolphins
trapped by ice. Photograph by: Norma Miller,
For Canwest News
ServiceA group of local men braved dangerous broken ice and frigid waters in a fibreglass speedboat to rescue a small pod of dolphins and help them back to open water, the mayor of Seal Cove, N.L., said Thursday.
"We didn't get any response from (Department of Fisheries and Oceans). It takes so long to get things done when you go through government departments," said Mayor Winston May. "So, some local guys decided to put out their small speedboat and put on their survival suits and didn't they put a channel through the water to where the dolphins was at."
The dolphins had been stranded by a slab of ice since Sunday in White Bay off the coast of Seal Cove, a village of about 400 people. A chunk of ice was rapidly closing in around the animals and threatening to suffocate them.
May said it took the four men about three hours to break a channel in the ice with their boat, and one — a 16-year-old youth — got into the water and helped calm one of the dolphins weakened by the ordeal so they could tow it to open water.
Details here.
SINC SAYS:
Anyone care to join
me in a round of applause for the “Boys of
Newfoundland”?
