WELLFLEET - Mike Giblin's face said it all: a black streak of Wellfleet mud slashed forehead to chin, broken only by a big smile.
"I love it. It's fantastic," said the retired schoolteacher from Connecticut. Giblin, a volunteer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Marine Mammal Rescue Team, had just helped rescue a live dolphin off the mucky flats of Drummer Cove yesterday.
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Drummers Cove, Wellfleet: 10 dolphins stranded Thursday afternoon. Two were saved and released Thursday night at Herring Cove in Provincetown. Eight were unreachable. Only six were found yesterday morning: three alive, three dead. Two were released at Herring Cove later in the day; a third was expected to be released last night.
Loagy Bay, Wellfleet: Six dolphins stranded Thursday. One was euthanized; one was found dead, and four were rescued and released at Herring Cove that night.
News choppers wheeled overhead, and TV crews nearly outnumbered rescuers working for a second day to save six Atlantic white-sided dolphins, part of a group of 10 that stranded in the cove Thursday afternoon.
Despite a heroic effort Thursday that saved two dolphins, volunteers and rescue team staff couldn't get across the cove's flats, which had the consistency of quicksand, to reach the other eight.
But the night's high tide lifted the living and the dead, pushing them in closer to shore. Team members could walk out and lift the animals on a stretcher and a big wheeled cart for transport to the road. Bayonets of bronzed marsh grass snapped underfoot and the sodden peat bowed like a mattress, releasing its sulphurous smell as the team strained to carry dolphins that weighed hundreds of pounds.
Only six of the eight were found: three dead and three alive.
Two were rescued and released at Herring Cove while the third living dolphin eluded capture. That animal was eventually found and rescuers hoped to release it last night.
"Most of us consider it a real privilege to do this," said volunteer Louisa Allen, of Harwich, yesterday morning.
The living animals were taken to a large trailer and placed on mattresses, then covered with blankets. They were periodically wracked by shivers, and called to one another with various clicks and whistles.
Dolphin stranding in Wellfleet
Michael Moore, a senior research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, knelt next to one dolphin and waved an ultrasound wand from nose to tail while other technicians drew blood samples. The ultrasound will give researchers a three-dimensional picture to find hidden injuries.
Strandings are one of scientists' few opportunities to examine marine mammals. The ultrasounds establish a baseline picture of what a healthy animal looks like for researchers investigating physiological reasons for strandings, Moore said. The blood is examined there in the van for chemical indicators of high stress, such as elevated levels of glucose and muscle enzymes. Rescue team staff consider this analysis along with the physical appearance, energy level and other signs, to determine if the dolphin is healthy enough to be released.
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