Edhat Staff
Condor Express crew rescuing a tangled common dolphin (Photo: Angelo Sena / Condor Express)
By edhat staff
The crew of whale watching boat Condor Express went above and beyond Saturday by rescuing a common dolphin.
After a tour around Santa Cruz island filled with sightings of four humpback whales and numerous pods of dolphins, the boat headed back towards Santa Barbara Harbor, according to the Condor Express.
An onboard naturalist noticed a dolphin that appeared to be in a clump of drift kelp. Upon closer look the dolphin was indeed entangled in polypro lines, a braided rope that’s commonly used on boats.
The crew noticed the rope appeared to be connected to a lobster trap line and the dolphin was entangled with the rope around its mouth, back, and pectoral flippers.
The crew were able to cut the line and the dolphin was freed from the rope and unharmed.
Condor Express recognizes their quick-think crew members Austin and Devin for cutting the line and Captain Dave for skillful boat handling during the incident.
View the full video below:
Hurray! Thank you Austin and Devin and Captain Dave, for looking out for our dolphin brethren!
Thumbs up on this video and the efforts of the crew to disentangle the dolphin.
Lucky lucky dolphin. How many marine animals in our channel die as “incidental” kills thanks to careless fishermen? How long would this dolphin have suffered before succumbing, if not for the Condor crew happening upon it?
1206…how do you know this was caused by careless fishermen? that line is used on pretty much any boat. power boats, speed boats, sailboats, crab and lobster and diving boats. pleasure craft use it too. debris travels in currents so no telling where the lines originated from.
Because the above article says the line is from a lobster trap.
Blimey.!… I’d weigh anchor with any lad who treats life on the ocean with respect like that.
right, so they investigated this? or you just believe anything you read on the internet? and again, how was the lobster boat careless? there could have been 1000s of scenarios of why the cage broke free of it’s line.
ZERO – “The crew noticed the rope appeared to be connected to a lobster trap line…” Not sure they would lie about it.
Condor crew. Thank you for saving one of my brethren