Beached Ballycastle Dolphin Lost

Although concerned people fought hard to save the life of a dolphin washed up on the beach in Ballycastle yesterday, it ultimately proved impossible to help the disorientated mammal.

It was discovered stranded yesterday morning at around 10am and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency was called in to try and save what they had identified as a bottlenose dolphin.

Despite attempts to refloat it, the dolphin again stranded itself in the shallows.

A local vet was then called in to put the animal out of its distress and its body has been sent for autopsy.

Dolphins and their larger cousins, whales, have a tendency to strand, either through sickness or becoming disorientated in shallow water.

A local who helped said people were very upset they couldn't save the animal.

All attempts by the environment agency team - and their specialist knowledge about how to deal with these incidents - came to nothing as they tried to get the animal back into deep water five or six times.

But it was in some distress and couldn't make it back out to sea and kept coming back to shore, and had finally to be dealt with by euthanasia.

(BMcC)