WELLFLEET – The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) raced to Wellfleet on Friday to aid in the rescue of a group of over 120 Atlantic Whitesided Dolphins stranded at the “Gut” of Wellfleet’s Herring River, the largest single mass stranding in the organization’s 25-plus years of emergency response on the Cape.
Wellfleet’s Great Island is a dangerous and muddy location for marine mammals caught in the area’s fluctuating tides, and IFAW staff, volunteers, and other assisting parties including the Center for Coastal Studies were hard at work to herd the dolphins back to deeper waters.
At least ten dolphins passed away during the effort, but scores more survived and made it offshore, with teams and scouts remaining through the next day to ward off other bands of dolphins swimming nearby.
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