Team Effort Rescues Trapped Dolphin
Three women from local sports group Hastings Rounders have reported a dramatic success. No bats or balls were involved – rather, they accomplished the remarkable rescue of a dolphin trapped in a rocky gulley under rough seas at Rock-A-Nore beach.
The three – Amy Walker, who is the group’s Chair, Carrie Warrior and Sarah Gale – were out on a team walk on 28 December. Warrior had just remarked that she wished she had the courage to go for a swim in the icy waters. Then they saw a mass of gulls hovering in the sky.
“We stopped to watch as the birds looked quite unusual, and then we saw a fin”, said Walker. “We all thought it was a shark to begin with,” said Warrior. “By the way it was thrashing, we knew it was stuck in a gulley.”
Gale said: “When we got closer, we could see it wasn’t a shark but a dolphin or maybe a porpoise.”
Tough Going
Walker and Warrior ran down the rocks and plunged in, while Gale stayed on land to take photos and run for help if necessary. The two women struggled for 20 minutes against the incoming tide to reposition the stuck creature, later identified as a common dolphin.
“It was pretty tough going because the sea was rough and we couldn’t get a sure footing on the seabed because of the rocks”, said Walker. “The tide was coming in, so we were getting knocked over and having to pick each other up, as well as trying not to stress the dolphin even more. I was telling her she would be ok. We were at the tail end because we weren’t sure if she would bite us – she was quite heavy.”
“Because the water was choppy, we couldn’t see the rocks beneath, so it took about five minutes of both of us manoeuvring the dolphin before I was able to turn her and finally release her”, said Warrior. “It was definitely a two- woman job – but then we are always a team at Hastings Rounders.”
Carrie Warrior hands on (right). Photo: Sarah Gale
Warrior later contacted British Divers Marine Life Rescue to report the incident. An officer told her: “It’s natural to think of putting them back in the water, however a healthy cetacean very rarely strands. There is usually an underlying cause. Hopefully it’s a happy ending and it’s gone back out. Thank you for letting us know, as our teams can now prepare if it strands again.”
“So we hope we did the right thing,” said Walker. “People have asked me what the dolphin’s tail felt like, and honestly the closest thing is the base of a rounders post! Seeing her swim off into the distance was a really beautiful moment. She swam in a big arc surfacing a couple of times and headed towards Bexhill.”
The Hastings Rounders group was established in 2022, playing the game through the summer in Alexandra Park. More recently they have been awarded a Sports England grant which has enabled them to continue indoors over the winter at Hastings Academy, and from this month at St Leonards Academy as well. They already have 35 players ranging in age from 19 to 70+ but are keen to find more.
The group can be accessed on facebook or via https://eequ.org/experience/2515 or at [email protected]
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