Bermagui locals including surf life saving members have assisted a dolphin stranded on Horseshoe Bay beach.
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The dolphin, believed to be a striped dolphin, became stranded in the shallows in front of the surf club around 4pm Thursday.
Surf life saving member Rob Shaw and fellow Bermagui local Josh Mccue were among the first on the scene to help the dolphin.
Mr Shaw put a shout-out on Facebook calling for anyone with wetsuits to come down and help.
Tania Patterson said the dolphin was initially seen from the headland rolling around in the surf.
Locals including her partner Mr Mccue rushed down and unsuccessfully attempted to swim the dolphin out to deeper water.
National Parks rangers then arrived and a call was made to ORRCA (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia).
The advice was to bring the dolphin up on the sand and to keep dousing it water, which locals were doing.
The local rescuers at just after 7pm were waiting for ORRCA staff to arrive.
One thought was to take the exhausted dolphin around to the river where it could recover, Ms Patterson said.
Whale researcher David Donnelly said causes of strandings were rarely determined, particularly for oceanic species such as this, even with necropsy. It could be illness, anthropogenics, injuries, malnutrition....the list of possibilities goes on.
Peter Garbett from the Cetal Fauna organisation said it looked like a striped dolphin and “the species doesn't have a good record of recovery when they've come in to shore, but I wish them luck.”
The whale experts suggested using gloves and not covering the dorsal fin with a towel in dolphin stranding cases.
UPDATE 8.40PM: Sad ending with news just in that the dolphin did not make it and had to be euthanised.
ORRCA arrived and took about an hour assessing the situation including being on the phone to Sea World marine parks.
Both the ORRCA people and the local rescuers noticed that the dolphin’s dorsal fin was hot as if the animal was overheating, Ms Patterson said.
The decision was made not to do a necropsy, or animal autopsy, and the dolphin was taken to the Bermagui landfill for disposal.
Earlier in the afternoon, Far South Coast Surf Life Saving branch spokesman Andrew Edmunds said the life savers were able to hold the dolphin in the shallows until National Parks arrived to take over.
He said the species of dolphin was not known and there was recent case where a small whale beached itself in Eurobodalla shire after it apparently became disorientated due to disease.
Bronwyn Henry from Wildlife Rescue South Coast said a member of the public notified her organisation of the stranding and they contacted ORRCA and National Parks.