Bondi Rescue lifeguards battle to save injured dolphin beached at Bondi
When a distressed and wounded dolphin washed up on Bondi Beach over the weekend, lifeguards swung into action in a desperate bid to save its life.
The struggling dolphin in need of rescuing washed up in a fortuitous spot, right on the doorstep of where the hit reality TV show Bondi Rescue is filmed.
Right on cue the tv stars were able to swing into action and attend to the distressed mammal.
"Not all rescues are in our operations procedure," one of the show's stars, Anthony 'Harries' Carroll posted on social media.
"We tried so hard to save this poor dolphin. We put him back in the ocean so many times. He swam off, but kept coming back."
The dolphin rescue effort began when it washed up on the beach late on Saturday afternoon.
A video posted by the chief lifeguard, Bruce 'Hoppo' Hopkins, shows six men, including lifeguards and a surfer, working desperately to return the dolphin to the ocean.
In the footage there are scrapes and scratches visible on its stomach as it rolls around in the surf.
It’s a common occurrence for dolphins to be spotted at Bondi most days.
According for Fairfax Media this was the first time the team had seen a dolphin beach itself.
"We have a lot of dolphins come into the bay at Bondi," Hopkins said.
"It's always great watching them going around the surfers and catching the waves. We thought this one was just catching waves and coming in, until it got right up on the sand bank in the shallows and charged up the beach and beached itself.
"We went down and with members of the public tried to help it back into the water. It got back in and swam off .. then it just kept coming back. It did that three or four times."
Hopkins said that they tried desperately immerse the dolphin in the water and calm it down however sadly he told Fairfax, "Then it just stopped moving and passed away. It was upsetting for the lifeguards, nobody likes to see ... such a beautiful animal pass away."
He said the team then carried the three metre-long dolphin on a stretcher while staff from Taronga Zoo carried out tests to determine why the dolphin died.
"Hopefully it was just natural causes," Hopkins said.
On his Instagram account, Hopkins posted: "We tried so hard to save this dolphin but were unsuccessful.”
News break – June 26
