Cape Life: RESCUE!

WHAT A DAY! i spent the day helping to save four common dolphins that stranded in wellfleet this morning. we got a call from ethan, one of our service partners who is a shellfisherman in wellfleet, while we were getting ready for service (I had COD day today). he told us that there was a whale swimming around near the harbor pier and the tide was going out. the majority of the house wanted to see the whale, so we threw on some clothes and headed to the pier. we couldn't see much more than the spout from it's blowhole and sometimes it's dorsal fin. we also saw a small pod of dolphins in the distance, but we were more concerned about the whale, who was swimming further into duck creek in the wellfleet harbor while the tide was receeding quickly. we were freezing, so some of us ran home to get warmer clothes to prepare to help the whale -- just in case! during the 20 minutes we were back at the house, the whale safely swam back to deeper water and the dolphins we saw in the distance stranded! people earlier had seen 4 dolphins, but could only find 3....so meg & brian went on a dolphin hunt and found the last one in some muck waaaay up in duck creek. we showed up with our waders and were excited to help! brian was already out by the dolphin with one of the stranding network volunteers, tracy. tim was making his way out and me, meg and amanda were close behind. meg & amanda never made it out....& i barely did. the muck was relentless and did not want us to help. immediately i was on my butt & struggling to stand up again. i fell 4 more times before making it to the dolphin and my blue coat and green waders were now brown. once at the dolphin we made a plan to have two people bring it closer to the water, since we were all struggling with the muck. we got the dolphin in a stretcher and tracy and tim were bringing it closer for brian and i to help. misty, from the stranding network showed up and also helped. i, ultimately, was left behind because i kept getting stuck in the muck. BOO. but the dolphin was successfully taken to the stranding network truck to be looked over. once i was freed from the muck, we all made our way over to chipman's cove to help the 3 other stranded dolphins. we were some of the first people on the scene again and i was pumped full of adrenaline and not really sure what to do -- even though this is what i have been learning about for the last 4 months! i quickly got focused and everyone started digging out the pectoral fins so the dolphins would be in a more comfortable position. i then started filling out health assessments for each of the animals while my fellow americorps-ers were busy being AMAZING and making sure the animals were experiencing the least amount of stress possible and keeping them warm with blankets. the stranding network showed up with their HUGE IFAW trailer and we were in business. we rolled each dolphin into a stretcher and carried them up individually to the trailer. once all four were in, we had a 10 car caravan (including a police escort!) up to Ptown, to release the dolphins into the atlantic ocean at herring cove beach. volunteers from the provincetown center of coastal studies and the new england aquarium in boston showed up to help! it was quite amazing to see so many people wanting to help these dolphins. each animal had 5-6 people carrying them on the stretchers and we all walked into the ocean together and on the count of 3 released all 4 of the dolphins together and they were off swimming! it was such a big accomplishment to have helped save these helpless animals....and to FINALLY get some hands on experience through the stranding network. they really appreciated our help today, too. there are a few pictures and a video online if you click on this: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090204/NEWS/90204027

i am in the 2nd picture in the black with the headband. i am not really in the video because i was taking down health info....but all the young people are AMERICORPS! represent :)

strategizing how to help the first dolphin in duck creek....