Morecambe lifeboat crews help rescue stranded porpoise

Morecambe's volunteer RNLI hovercraft crew was tasked with rescuing three porpoises that had become stranded across the bay at Humphrey Head Point.

At 3.12pm on Thursday (April 11), two rescue hovercrafts were launched after the team were alerted by coastguards to a number of people who had walked out into the bay to assist the animals.

Coastguards believed the people were in danger of being cut off by the incoming tide and requested the assistance of Morecambe's lifeboat crews.

Both the inshore lifeboat and inshore rescue hovercraft were launched and a British Marine Life Rescue joined the rescue efforts.

But arriving on the scene, crews found that two of the stranded porpoises had already died.

The third was severely distressed but RNLI volunteers helped the coastguard teams and a volunteer from British Marine Life Rescue in lifting it into the hovercraft.

The stricken animal was then transported further out into the bay, where it was released and kept under observation until it had safely swum away into open water.