River Dee Dolphin Rescued

22 August 2013, 17:05 | Updated: 22 August 2013, 17:07

Volunteers from RNLI Flint rescue the mammal who's been swimming as far as Chester Racecourse

The dolphin, originally nicknamed 'Dave' but has been renamed 'Davina', had been seen in the River Dee since the beginning of the week and on Wednesday even ventured inshore as far as Chester Racecourse.

On Thursday morning the volunteer crew from RNLI Flint were called to the Airbus factory near Saltney where the dolphin had become stranded on the sandbank and needed to get to deeper water.

RNLI lifeboat operations manager Alan Forrester said the volunteer crew located Davina and put her inside a stretcher and then transferred her to the lifeboat. He said: "The dolphin is a fair size so we'll go at a very slow pace until we reach deeper waters, where we will be met by the Rhyl all-weather RNLI lifeboat."

Marine experts think the dolphin, which is usually more at home in the deep seawater of the Bay of Biscay, must have been chasing fish up the River Dee in North Wales.