A pod of up to 20 dolphins was successfully returned to sea after a near-stranding in Belmullet, Co Mayo, yesterday morning.
The alert was raised shortly after 8am when the pod was noticed in less than two feet of water at Bundoola, about a quarter of a mile outside Belmullet on the Blacksod road.
Pat Cowman, secretary of Belmullet Sub-Aqua Club, alerted fellow divers, and they were joined by members of Belmullet fire brigade, the crew of the RNLI inshore lifeboat for the Mullet peninsula, the Irish Coast Guard and townspeople.
The group waded out into the water and shepherded the mammals back out into Blacksod Bay. National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger James Kilroy said he believed that they were almost certainly striped dolphins.
Mr Kilroy and Mr Cowman were returning by boat when they received a call that two more dolphins were in difficulties at a lower bay at Emlybeg North, about two miles from Belmullet. "One of them was quite distressed, so we bagged them, lifted them into the RNLI boat and brought them out to sea,"Mr Kilroy said.
The precise cause of the near-stranding isn't known, but Mr Cowman said that the pod may have followed one of their group, who was sick, into the shore. "Dolphins prefer to beach than to drown if they are in difficulty, and there's also a strong loyalty to the dominant male - which is why they will all follow one or two in trouble."
Belmullet Sub-Aqua Club has become very experienced at dolphin rescue. In February 2001, it rescued a dozen common dolphins which became stranded on sandbanks in Blacksod Bay.