Hey folks,
We had an adult male spotted dolphin ill, injured and on his last burst of energy in the surf in front of Capistrano today. I was on my way to mark sea turtle nest 32 when I saw a man looking intently at something in the surf not too far up. It was about 6ish. Then I saw flippers and ran toward him thinking it was the nesting mama turtle still hanging out! But as I approached, there was the poor mamal, washing around, trying to keep himself upright, catching a few waves to get in to the sand. He spoke. I called Sharon Maxwell or the SWTW and she got in touch with those at Gulf World in PC. Many other folks from the turtle watch came down to help along with some wonderful visitors. The man who found the dolphin went into the surf with my husband to keep the animal surrounded by water, but out of the waves. Another volunteer came along too and after about 20 minutes the animal died.
According to the expert at Gulf World, Secret, said this species goes into shock easily and all we did was great. It may have been a dolphin they had a call about from Tyndall yesterday that someone pushed back out into the gulf.
He did have a shark bite on him, but Secret said he was thin from not eatting and may have been ill to begin with before the shark found him.
I'm going to post photos on our facebook site for South Walton Turtle Watch as soon as I can. Keep in mind, Monday is my housework day and I'm very far behind now as we were on the beach for 3 hours with the stranding.
More later!