After the stricken pod were spotted, a rescue operation got underway shortly after midday, involving a combined efforts of a team from British Divers Marine Life Rescue, alongside members of the Fisheries Department, Jersey Coastguard and Fire Service.

The Acting Duty Harbour Master was also on-site to make sure everyone was safe and that nobody put themselves in danger.

Together, the team put together a makeshift dam to keep the water from draining.

Video: The rescue effort.

Donna de Gruchy, the Jersey Co-ordinator for BDMLR, said it could have been “opportunistic feeding” that resulted in the dolphins coming into shallow water and getting stuck.

She added that the team had done as much as it could until the tide came in and the dam was flooded.

“We couldn’t stay from a safety point of view so now we can only watch and wait. 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they were back tomorrow but hopefully they will go out with the current.”

Earlier this month, BDMLR said they were keeping an eye on a pod of common dolphins at St Catherine's Bay, after members of the public noticed them spending time in the shallows of the bay, as well as around the north coast and Gorey.

"Hopefully they are just, and thankfully appear to be, enjoying chasing and munching on the plentiful sardines and herrings around," BDMLR said at the time.

"However the Common dolphin are usually in our deeper waters out west and only very very occasionally will they come up the North Coast and onto the East side.

"We always want to be as prepared as possible to step in should a stranding occur, so we spent the afternoon monitoring their behaviour just in case.

"At most they seem fine, they have some calves with them and have been seen feeding and playing."

ADVICE...

Any members of the public who spot a suspected stranding are asked to take the following steps: