A dolphin sinking under the weight of a net tangled around its tail was pulled back from the brink Wednesday afternoon after a North Bay Village couple spotted the struggling animal from their apartment window and raced to get help. Ahmed Raul Perez's wife noticed the dolphin first, and within minutes the couple had a drone in the air and police on the phone.
Perez and his wife called 911 after she spotted the dolphin in the water near their home, according to WSVN. Perez then launched a drone to get a closer look at the animal, and he used the aerial footage to guide North Bay Village and Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office marine patrol units directly to it. The outlet reports that nearby neighbors also helped point out the dolphin's location to responding officers as the situation unfolded in Biscayne Bay.
A Race Against a Sinking Animal
Marine patrol units arrived at the scene within minutes, the station's report notes. Perez said the dolphin was sinking because a heavy object holding it down kept it from floating normally, and he said he believed the animal might have died without the quick intervention from police. Once on scene, marine patrol unit members worked to remove the netting from the dolphin's tail.
After the net came off, the dolphin swam back into the depths of the bay, per the same account. Perez said he was very happy to see the dolphin saved, a sentiment that came after a tense stretch watching the animal struggle just outside his window. North Bay Village officials said the dolphin appeared to be uninjured.
Not the First Tangled Dolphin in Biscayne Bay
South Florida's waters have seen similar scrambles before. In an earlier case, a baby dolphin trapped in a fishing net near Shorecrest was freed by Miami-Dade Police Officer Nelson Silva, a member of the department's marine patrol unit who responded after getting a call about the animal in distress, according to NBC 6 South Florida. Another entangled dolphin was freed from a fishing net in Biscayne Bay by a Florida police officer wielding a pole and a knife, with the dolphin swimming away afterward, as UPI reported.
Entanglements are not limited to dolphins or to Florida. In Georgia, a female manatee was rescued near St. Simons Island after becoming caught in crab trap lines, with a multi-agency team of state and federal wildlife officials collaborating on that rescue, according to Savannah Now.
What To Do If You Spot an Entangled Animal
Federal wildlife officials stress that speed matters but so does staying hands-off. Per NOAA Fisheries, prompt reporting is the best way for the public to help an entangled animal, while only trained and authorized responders should attempt to actually disentangle a whale, dolphin, porpoise, seal, sea lion or sea turtle. That guidance lines up with how Wednesday's rescue played out, with the couple reporting and tracking the dolphin while trained marine patrol officers handled the physical removal of the net.
