Story By: Lee Bullen,Sub Editor: Joseph Golder,Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire/@OfficialUMT @mohd.nuraiman.58
This is the moment several students carry a stranded baby dolphin in their arms to another section of the beach before successfully releasing the struggling calf in the sea.
The viral footage was filmed on a stretch of beach behind the University Malaysia Terengganu in the northern Malaysian state of Terengganu and the university posted the video on their Facebook page where it has been viewed by near a million netizens.
In the footage, a student is seen carrying the dolphin in his arms as a pal douses its little head with water to keep it hydrated.
They then place the calf in the shallow water, but the dolphin struggles to swim out to sea.
After a while, one student appears to move it to slightly deeper water and the group is heard cheering as the calf manages to swim away.
According to local media, a marine biology student identified as Mohamad Azlani was told about the stranded dolphin calf by locals and he quickly assembled a few classmates before rushing to the stretch of beach behind the university.
When they found the apparently injured dolphin, which was struggling to swim out to sea, the rescuers grew concerned.
Reports said the calf had marks around its eyes and was helplessly lying on one side.
Azlani explained: “We quickly wet the little dolphin’s body until it started to move again. I then picked it up and put it back in the sea.”
A university spokesperson told Asia Wire that dolphins become stranded “most years especially during the monsoon season”.
They added: “A single dolphin may become stranded due to illness or injury, or swimming close to the shore to take a rest in shallow water and getting trapped in changing tide.”
The spokesperson said it was a spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) and that it is the first time the marine biology students came in contact with one.
The university said: “It is their first experience encountering a spinner dolphin. As people, they did their best to keep it alive. That is why they rushed to get the dolphin into deeper water.”
Speaking about the footage, the spokesperson added: “I think that was an amazing video since it can help others who do not have any background in marine biology to take an action. If this type of encounter happens again in future. It also able to educate people to acknowledge the existence of other animals in marine life that live side by side with us.”
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