Young Dolphin Trapped In Creek For 20 Days Heads To Open Water With Help From Human Chain

CLEARWATER, FL — When a lone young dolphin accidentally took a wrong turn into Allen's Creek in Clearwater and couldn't find his way back out, a team made up of 28 marine biologists from various agencies came to the rescue.

On Friday, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium's rescue team joined with its partners at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Management and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to create a human chain to coax the wayward dolphin back to the safety of open waters.

The aquarium's rescue team had been monitoring the dolphin since it was first spotted in the creek on Jan. 1 to make sure the dolphin was healthy and didn't show signs of stress.

"They'd been watching the dolphin for the past few weeks staying in the same cove area or same lagoon area, and there was a short, tight bridge that the dolphin didn't want to go past," said Andy Garrett of the FWC.

"It is a young animal with good body condition. Its behavior seemed to indicate it was doing OK. We didn't see any signs of distress," said Abby Stone, rescue program manager and stranding coordinator.

Despite its good health, she said being confined to the small area posed potential long-term problems for the animal, such as isolation from other dolphins and an increased risk of harassment and human interaction.

"Long-term, it's not great to have a dolphin in such a small area, so we decided we were going to encourage it out of that area and get it moving," Garrett said.

The aquarium sought the advice of NOAA's Southeast Stranding Network, which is in charge of determining if intervention is needed to save a marine animal's life.

In this case, said Stone, the network agreed it would be in the dolphin's best interest to help him escape from the creek.

"There were 25 to 28 of us in the water and our main goal was just to create a straight line, so we were should to shoulder with no gaps to let the animal pass us," said Brittany Baldrica, senior rescue biologist at the aquarium. "We all moved at a steady pace and every time we would come to an obstacle, whether it was a tree or a dock, we would have to navigate around those while still maintaining shoulder to shoulder, so that was a bit challenging."

Meanwhile, Garrett rowed a boat behind the line of biologists and kept an eye on the dolphin, calling out to the team when to advance and when to slow down as the human chain moved toward the bridge.

As they moved, they slapped the water in front them to encourage the dolphin to continue moving forward.

"We wanted to give him enough motivation to go under that bridge and out to the open waterway where he could eventually make his way out to the bay," Stone said.

"Towards the end, as we were getting closer to the bridge, the dolphin made a quick turnaround toward part of our line and, for a second, we were worried that maybe he had broken our line of people, but actually, after the quick turnaround, he thought about it for a second and, as we looked through the bridge, we could see him displacing water with his dorsal fin and, just on the other side the bridge, we saw his dorsal fin come up."

At that point, the biologists began cheering and applauding.

"It does work," Stone said. "It just takes a little bit of coordination, patience and time to get the animal where we needed him to be in the canal, so it was very exciting after 20-plus days for him to finally be out of the canal."

This isn't the first time the aquarium has used this hands-off method to coax a dolphin back into open water.

In September 2019, aquarium staff was alerted by residents when four dolphins — two adults and two calves — swam into a canal near 4th Street North and 78th Avenue in St. Petersburg and were unable to find their way back out. Just as the team did in this case, biologists monitored the dolphins for several days before using the human chain method to gently direct the dolphins back into the gulf.

Related:

• Watch: Human Chain Coaxes Trapped Dolphins Out Of St. Pete Canal
• Izzy The Dolphin Finds Permanent Home At Clearwater Marine Aquarium

In both cases, the residents living adjacent to the waterways alerted wildlife officials to the animals' predicament while maintaining their distance from the dolphins — staying at least 50 feet away.

Dolphins are federally protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which makes it illegal to feed them, harass them or interact with them.

"We’re thankful to the residents in the area who worked with us to help protect the animal from harassment and provided access to their property while we monitored and rescued the animal," Stone said.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium's newest resident exemplifies what happens when people don't heed the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

First spotted alone in December 2019 in canals adjacent to a nearby neighborhood in North Padre Island, Izzy appeared regularly in photos on social media as people fed her, petted her and even jumped on her for rides. Eventually, Izzy began demonstrating dangerous behavior toward people and showed signs of injuries, likely caused by a collision with a boat.

After years of illegal human interaction, Izzy's health declined, requiring medical intervention. The Marine Mammal Stranding Network decided that her life was at risk in the wild and she became a permanent resident of the Clearwater aquarium in November.

“It’s extremely disappointing that human behavior took away Izzy’s ability to live safely in her natural habitat,” said Kelly Martin, vice president of zoological care at Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Anyone who sees a marine animal in distress can contact the Clearwater Marine Aquarium's 24-hour rescue line at 727 441-1790, Ext. 1, in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, Citrus and Levy counties.