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Dolphin stranded at low tide at Goodwick Harbour is rescued

Debra Angel Dolphin rescueDebra Angel
Rescuers hope the dolphin will not come back into shallow waters

A dolphin stranded at low tide was rescued after onlookers noticed it in "distress" and called for help.

The adult common dolphin was stuck in about 40cm (15.7in) of water at Goodwick Harbour near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire on Friday at 13:00 GMT.

Rather than wait for the tide to come in and flood the harbour, a team spent an hour carrying the dolphin into deeper water using a towel as a sling.

One of the team of rescuers believes the animal swam away uninjured.

"Initially it swam out, but tried to come back in again," said Cleopatra Brown, a medic with Welsh Marine Life Rescue.

Debra Angel Dolphin rescueDebra Angel
After some coaxing, the dolphin swam out into deeper waters
Debra Angel Dolphin rescueDebra Angel
Goodwick Harbour is near Fishguard on the Pembrokeshire coast

"We left it a couple of hours after we left it and it hadn't come back in. The question mark is whether it will come back in and get stranded again."

Ms Brown, who runs a coasteering business and is a marine medic with Welsh Marine Life Rescue, helped the dolphin with specialists from British Divers' Marine Life Rescue and the Sea Trust.

She said common dolphins live in pods with others in deeper water, so it was unusual for them to become stranded.