Dolphin stranded 30 miles inland given lift back to sea in lifeboat

A lifeboat crew was called out to help rescue a dolphin which had became stuck on sandbanks after it had swam 30 miles inland. The dolphin was seen frolicking in the River Dee at Saltney Ferry on the outskirts of Chester after taking a wrong turning and swimming up a river.



The RNLI lifeboat was launched from Connah's Quay to help release the dolphin, orginally nicknamed 'Dave', but now re-named 'Davina' after she was identified as being female. Davina was then safely pulled aboard Flint’s inshore RNLI lifeboat and transported out to sea.


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RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager Alan Forrester said: ‘We had a representative from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue on board who was closely monitoring the dolphin. Our volunteer crew located the dolphin, put it inside a stretcher and transferred into the lifeboat.



"The dolphin was a fair size, so we went at a very slow pace until we reached deeper waters, where we were met by the Rhyl all-weather RNLI lifeboat. She was much too heavy to lift aboard Rhyl RNLI lifeboat so Rhyl escorted us out to sea." The dolphin was then released around the North Rhyl Flats as if it was set free in any shallow waters, there were fears it would become stranded again.