Beached dolphin dies in Royal Bay of Grouville

Monday 11 August 2014

A dolphin stranded as the tide receded in the Royal Bay of Grouville on Saturday morning died within minutes of rescuers reaching it.

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDLR) in Jersey received a call from a man who spotted the dolphin while walking on the beach. It was stranded as the tide receded, half way down the sands in line with Tower No 5, the last of Conway’s Grouville coastal defences tower before the Royal Jersey Golf Links.

The group contacted Transport and Technical Services (TTS) and diver and walking guide Bob Tompkins stayed with the body until a team arrived to take it away to be properly disposed of at the animal incinerator at Howard David Farm.

He said: “It was immediately obvious he was underweight and he had very few teeth. There were also signs of old age and he was in a very poor condition.  He looked like he had come up against something like steel reinforcing or something had had a go at biting him as he had regular bite marks but they would not have come from a shark.”

Mr Tompkins said it was a common dolphin, which, in spite of its name, is not common in Jersey waters, though they can be spotted in deeper water.

“It was alive when it came into the bay but it would have been in very poor condition so we could not have done anything for it. It had probably been in the bay for a few days and as the tide went out it got stranded.”

The TTS truck got stuck in soft sand while lifting the dolphin, but fortunately a tractor working at nearby oyster beds came to the rescue to pull the vehicle free.