Ranting and dolphins

This week I have a rant and a story.

The rant goes something like this. I know from my time in Israel that news reports about an incident can vary widely depending on which political bias it is reported from, and accuracy can be somewhat fluid. With a good dollop of cynicism and knowledge of what’s actually going on in various incidents, I know that the variety and fluidity of the news is by no means confined to Israel. However, my eyes have been well and truly opened by the misreporting of a tiny little incident involving two cetaceans off Folkestone harbour. If a little local story like this, fascinating for those of us who were there, but probably quite dull to read about, can be so badly twisted to create sensationalist news, what hope for the ‘big’ stuff?

Which brings me to the story. Some of you know the first part, some may know the middle part, and one or two know the ending, so for completion’s sake, here’s the all of it.

Saturday morning started badly for us, with the dive of the day called off due to force 4 winds. I have an obligation to work one Saturday a month, so I decided to do that instead which seemed much better than working Sunday or part of the Bank Holiday weekend. But, with a heavy dollop of PMT, enthusiasm wasn’t really anywhere in the vicinity of my house. Went shopping out of town on the way into work, failed to find a parking space at work, came home and had a cup of coffee whilst contemplating walking in. Started walking in, boss man phoned, went over this and that while sat on a bench by the river, which was nice. He told me not to bother with the Saturday obligation this month as I’d done more than the requisite hours anyway, which was even nicer. Started ambling towards home when phone rang again.

After 5 months of patiently waiting, I got my first call from the BDMLR. Excitement!

Apparently there was a dolphin caught in nets off Folkestone beach near the Leas Cliffe Hall. Poor thing. Exciting though!

Sprinted home. Jumped in car. Jumped back out, retrieved rescue kit from house. Jumped back in car. Pulled off driveway. Jumped back out leaving car in middle of road. Switched off tumbler dryer, closed windows and locked front door. Took very deep breath. Jumped back in car and took off for Folkestone. Did I mention the excitement?

Got down to Folkestone and parked and found where all the fuss was, locating our Coordinator who was observing with a member of the Coastguard. By the Leas, the long beach starts breaking into smaller bays, and it was in one such bay and the point between it and then next bay that things were happening.

There are nets fifty metres out from the beach or thereabouts, and there was nothing caught in them. With quite a few people watching, in the bay itself, there was a bottlenose dolphin. This dolphin has been popularly named Dave and had been mooching the Folkestone coastline since May (previously he was a resident of the Sussex coastline). Today, Dave was happily strutting his stuff, looking for swimmers to play with and from time to time scaring small children and Dave devotees by surfacing with bunches of kelp around his dorsal. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Dave.

However, reports were mixed as to whether there were one or two animals, so we had to keep Dave under observation and look for the possible second animals. There was no sign of the second from the beach, so two other Marine Mammal Medics as well as myself were bundled into the Coastguard SUV and taken around to the sandy beach the other side of Folkestone Harbour where the RNLI RIB was waiting for us to jump in.

With motorbike style seating and foot hooks, plus one hundred and fifty horses on the back, riding those force four waves was totally excellent fun!

The three RNLI guys were really great, leaving us ladies in charge. Dave was still happily playing in the bay, while we scoured the area for the possible second animal. A second after Dave surfaced in the bay, we spotted another dorsal surfacing off the point. The second dorsal was darker and blunter, and with a lump that was probably kelp, but we weren’t close enough to identify it and it didn’t surface again. Leaving Dave to the beach bound observers, we anchored off the point, switched off the engine and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Time passed.

We waited.

We got one of the RNLI guys to hang over the side and squeak the rubber bottom of the boat it works with Spinner Dolphins!

We waited some more.

And waited.

Dave continued to frolick in the bay.

And waited.

Time passed.

Fish suddenly flew and we got a view of part of a dark head, which could have been anything from seal through dolphin through porpoise chasing them.

Whatever was down there, assuming it was the same animal, which we were unable to confirm, was travelling and feeding and therefore not in distress at this point.

So we waited some more.

And waited.

And waited.

Time passed.

Our big white chief came out with the Chief Medic armed with snorkels. They grid searched the area but found nothing. No evidence of netting, no animal in distress, just a few startled fish.

The decision was made to call it a day. The second animal seemed to be travelling and feeding, and therefore it was not in distress, and trying to catch the thing would have put it in distress.

So with Dave laughing at us, we went back to shore, said goodbye to the RNLI guys and said hello to the police.

The police were there because of fears of too much press turning up. Some press are really good and do as they’re told, behaving themselves. Others do not, forgetting that we’re dealing with wild animals and actually trying to help them, not creating a story specially to go on the front page of the tabloids. I didn’t see any press, but quite frankly, I wasn’t looking.

While we were debriefing with the Coordinator, he told us that the first news reports were out. Apparently Radio Cumbria(?!) had announced that two dolphins caught in nets off Folkestone died today. I’m sure Dave would have had an opinion on that.

Went home and Chris took me out for a lovely Chinese that evening. We went back to Folkestone on Sunday to see Dave, and he was happily mooching off the point.

Now here’s the middle of the story, things that were pointed out to me by some of my friends. (I don’t think what Mark actually said is printable. As for Peter, I think he’s still laughing hysterically.)

BBC version

Sunday Mirrors version

BYM News (Spain)

Monday I took a try diver out for a pootle around the swimming pool in Chatham, which was fun.

Wednesday we went for a night dive at Leybourne lake and I saw a freshwater eel. Perch are also willing to talk with you at night. Probably requesting this diver to go away and let it sleep, but hey, I don’t speak Perch-ese.

Which brings me to Thursday and the conclusion of my little story.

I got called out again. Reports of a cetacean beached at Folkestone, this time at the harbour wall end. Reports again were mixed, from one animal to three I think, with warnings of large crowds of people gathered, and press on their way.

We all had our hearts in our throats hoping it wasn’t Dave.

In total there were eight of us. One Coordinator, six medics and the owner of the fishing store that had been one of those reporting it. No crowds or press this time. It was quite possibly the second animal we’d spotted; and turned out to be a little harbour porpoise, just 1.3 metres long. There was only one animal and it was very dead. We wrapped it up and loaded it to go for autopsy; there was no obvious sign of net damage and no obvious cause of death.

Dave in the meantime was happily performing for somersaults for his audience back up the beach.

An early night was called for, along with much finger and toe crossing for a good diving weekend!