Fisheries center in Dagupan treats injured dolphin

FILE PHOTO COURTESY OF MAVIC MATILLANO/WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—A rare striped dolphin kept returning to the beach here Friday morning until its baffled rescuers realized the marine mammal had trouble swimming because of an injury.

Fernando de Guzman, head of the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council, said the dolphin was discovered at about 5:30 a.m. by rescue personnel.

“I immediately instructed them to return the dolphin to the gulf but it kept on returning. So, I called the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources,” De Guzman said.

Dr. Samantha Licudine, BFAR veterinarian, said the 2.2-meter-long adult female dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) had a wound near the right fin that “could have been caused by a predator.”

Licudine said the dolphin kept returning to shore because it could not swim well. “It was actually listing and could not balance itself,” Licudine said.

The dolphin was taken to BFAR’s National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center in Dagupan, where it would be treated before being released back to the sea.