Local family helps dolphin in distress

A dolphin was rescued on Monday evening by a local family out on their boat who saw it at a distance in the bay whilst it was floating out at sea. The dolphin they soon discovered had been entangled by a fishing line and lay motionless on the surface.
Returning from Western Beach Brian Richardson, and his wife Jane, granddaughter's Talia and Kyleen and Jayce were looking out for dolphins and soon stopped in their tracks when they found the dolphin in distress and wanted to see if there was anything they could do to help it.
At first they had assumed the dolphin was dead but soon realised through its blow hole that it was still breathing.

“It was in some distress and was obviously tangled up in fishing line,” explained Mrs Richardson.
Without hesitation her husband jumped into the sea with a diving knife and cut away at the thick fishing line which was a tangled mess and attached to its tail.
“Removing this the dolphin obviously exhausted soon started to sink,” she said.
It was then they realised it had a hook in its mouth. Fortunately they also managed to remove this.
“The dolphin was now free but was motionless, fearing the worst we were frantically trying to look for the number of the environmental agency to come and assess the situation,” she said.
But luckily as they remained close by the dolphin gradually started to swim away and slowly it recovered its speed until it eventually got back to its pod.
The family were clearly glad that they were able to help the dolphin but also distressed at how they had found it tangled up in a fishing line and hook. They made their way back to the Rock just after 7.30pm satisfied that they had helped save a dolphin which otherwise may not have been rescued.