Cape Cod strandings ( 6/3/02 )

Battling rising tides, bitter wind and frigid waters, rescuers struggled to save seven of more than a dozen dolphins and porpoises stranded in Wellfleet Harbor, Cape Cod in early March .

More than 20 volunteers and marine mammal stranding experts released seven white-sided dolphins into deep water in rovincetown. Marine mammal and sea turtle strandings in Cape Cod Bay are not unusual. Extreme tides and bait fish often draw dolphins too close to land and onshore storms also cause strandings because they affect a dolphin's sonar capabilities.

Carpenters working on a house overlooking Wellfleet Harbor first spotted the dolphins yesterday chasing bait fish at about 7:45 a.m.

"I saw birds working," said carpenter Lewis Gray of Orleans, who was assisting in the rescue.

"Then the other dolphins followed this one here," said Gray, who patted the side of a good-sized dolphin, the closest to shore of nine spotted in the mud flats left exposed by the receding tide.

Another five marine mammals, two or three of which may have been harbor porpoises, were also spotted to the north, closer to the Herring River Dike and the inside shore of Great Island. His hands red and puffy from the cold wind and sea, Gray scooped water over the dolphin to keep its skin moist, careful to avoid spilling water own its blowhole.

All the dolphins were breathing, some more labored than others. Each movement of the dolphins helped dig a depression in the muddy tidal flats where the animals came to rest as the morning tide receded.

Every 10 or 15 seconds, the animal closest to shore would exhale though the blow hole at the top of its head, and then quickly suck in a breath. Rescue teams from the Cape Cod Stranding Network, New England Aquarium in Boston, the International Wildlife Coalition in Falmouth and the International Federation for Animal Welfare in Yarmouthport arrived at the two stranding sites by late morning.

About 10:30 a.m., rescuers were faced with the quick return of the tide, and had to work swiftly to control the animals, get them onto flexible stretchers, float them close to shore and then heft them into the back of four-wheel-drive pickup trucks waiting on the flats. At one point, two trucks were almost up to their axle hubs as the tide rushed in.

Shortly after noon, the first of six dolphins from in front of the Chequessett Neck Yacht Club, plus another hauled out by the Herring River, were at a staging area in front of the yacht club. There, a stranding rescue team from New England Aquarium in Boston evaluated the animals, and made arrangements for their release into deep water at Herring Cove in Provincetown.

The rescued dolphins were kept wet, but their glistening gray and black bodies were covered with sheets to protect them from sunburn. The dolphins were moved periodically to prevent internal damage as their considerable weight, at least several hundred pounds, pressed down against the beds of the trucks and a large trailer that carried three animals.

In all, six dolphins were released at Herring Cove, another was treated and released nearby. Experts had to euthanize three others.