Henk Henn, NSRI Hermanus station commander, said; “On 26 April at 08:48 members of the public informed NSRI Hermanus that a baby dolphin was found and appearing to be in trouble on Grotto beach. NSRI Hermanus volunteers were activated and upon arrival found a 1 meter baby dolphin in the shallow surf, appearing to be disorientated and alone but otherwise appearing to be healthy.
Our sea rescue volunteers began a shore based look-out search for the main school of Dolphins with the idea that the baby dolphin could be reunited with its school but there was no sign of the school.
Sea Rescue volunteers brought the dolphin, still at a suckling age, to a local shark research center where the dolphin was placed in a tank in the care of a vet while our volunteers continued a search for the main school.
Fears were that the dolphin may have to be put down if it could not be released at sea as it would not survive at sea alone.
Then at around 11h10 our sea rescue volunteers responded to the harbor where there were reports of a man swept off the breakwater. While responding to the scene a local NSRI coast watcher reported sighting the school of dolphins out to sea off-shore of Hermanus.
Bystanders rescued the 51 year old man from the water and on our arrival on-scene it was confirmed that the man was not injured. He is the brother of an NSRI Hermanus volunteer and he had been walking on the breakwater where a wave swept him off the edge.
Our sea rescue craft Hunters Gold Rescuer was launched and the dolphin was put on board our sea rescue craft and transported to deeper water and released amongst the school of dolphins. The dolphin swam off amongst the school of dolphins and there have been no further reports of any sighting of the dolphin and we are confident that it has been reunited with the school of dolphins.”
