PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A group of Pinellas County neighbors helped free a dolphin from a net earlier this month.
“I was outside walking my dog, and I heard a dolphin blowhole underneath the neighbor’s dock across the water,” said Pinellas County resident Kandra Covert.
She noticed the dolphin was there for a while and was making a lot of noise.
“I see across the water there’s a rope hanging off my neighbor’s dock, and it starts pulling really tight multiple times, and I’m like, there’s got to be a dolphin stuck under there,” said Covert.
That’s when she called her neighbor, Monte Cline, for help.
“It appeared that whatever he was wrapped up in was also wrapped around the piling, so he could barely get his blowhole above the water,” said Monte Cline.
Soon after, several of their Clearwater neighbors sprang into action.
“Our neighbor was already on a kayak, he was getting in the water. He had a pair of scissors in his mouth,” said Covert.
Neighbors told ABC Action News that they tried to free the dolphin for about 15 minutes.
“What we ended up doing without realizing was we ended up unwrapping him from the piling, gave him some motion and then he was able to free himself,” said Cline.
They turned the net over to officials, and Florida Fish and Wildlife determined it was a gill net, which is illegal and was banned from Florida’s waters in 1995.
Using this type of net is a felony.
FWC sent us this information on the incident involving the net:
Gill nets are any net constructed entirely or partially of monofilament material other than a cast net or a landing dip net. They are typically vertical sections of net that are stretched out on a rope suspended by a float and typically work by “gilling” the fish and entangling them within the mesh. With the exception of very small fish that escape through the mesh, the majority of marine life that becomes entangled in the net die. This type of net can be especially devastating for sea turtles and marine mammals.Voters approved a Constitutional Amendment to ban these types of nets from Florida’s waters that went into effect on July 1, 1995. All violations pertaining to gill nets in state waters constitute a felony of the third degree.
“That is, I think, the hardest part is that somebody intentionally put something out that can cause harm like that, and it was just horrible to witness,” said Covert.
While officials continue to investigate, they’re encouraging people not to jump in the water to help if they see a marine animal in distress for both human and animal safety.
“Don’t intervene on your own. I know that most people do it because they want to help. But the biggest thing that you can do to help is just call for help so that way trade responders can do whatever needs to be done,” said Brittany Baldrica, senior rescue biologist for Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
“If you’re walking down the street and you see a human in distress, you’re not going to automatically intervene. You’re going to call for help, for somebody that is trained to respond to that type of situation. So it’s very similar,” she added.
“When we talked to Clearwater Marine Aquarium, they told us, ‘Make sure you bring it to shallow water, don’t touch it if possible,’ and of course, we were too far into the process to abide by that because as humans, you know we want to help. We want to save animals. You know we sprung into action as quick as possible,” said Covert.
If you see a marine animal in distress, officials urge you to call the FWC and wait for their instruction. They’ll advise you on what to do, connect you with the closest rescue group, and send out professionals to handle the situation.
