Stranded Porpoise Rescued In Dorset

Poole Harbour Control requested the launch of the Poole Inshore lifeboat on Saturday 26th Feb to rescue a ‘marooned mammal’ that had been spotted high and dry in the back of the harbour between Furzey and Green Island.

When the inshore lifeboat arrived on scene they found a porpoise stranded on a sand spur, which appears at low tide on the south side of Furzey Island.

The porpoise was quite dry and it is thought that it had been there for some time.

The volunteer crew improvised and used their lifejackets to make a stretcher to transfer the porpoise back to deeper waters.

John Vine, volunteer Poole lifeboat crewman said;

"The porpoise shot off at speed when it felt a bow wave wash over it’s nose, I think it will be okay".

The porpoise swam off and the lifeboat crew happy at a ‘job well done’ returned back to  the station.

But there was a coincidence on this ‘shout’ -  the helmsman Paul Singleton is affectionately known at Poole lifeboat station as ‘flipper’.