Excavator frees dolphins trapped by pack ice in Newfoundland harbour
HEARTS DELIGHT, N.L. — People gathered on the shoreline of a small Newfoundland village cheered and honked their horns Thursday as a pod of dolphins trapped by pack ice were freed by the local fire chief and a friend, who used excavators to clear a channel for the stranded animals.
The group of white-beaked dolphins, stuck in a small pool of sea water just off Heart’s Delight since Sunday, lost their way at first and then sprinted for the open waters of Trinity Bay.
“It was a big sigh of relief … (and) everyone was quite happy that everything went as we wanted to,” said fire Chief Stan Legge. “There was a nice bit of cheering there, and the boys were barmping their horns a bit, and the boys in our fire truck … set the siren off.”
Wayne Ledwell, head of the Whale Release and Strandings Group, said he was impressed with the community effort, saying the resulting celebration “was like a New Year’s Eve party.”