Two porpoises die and one is rescued in Morecambe Bay
RNLI volunteers in Morecambe helped to rescue a stranded porpoise in the bay.
Morecambe’s volunteer RNLI hovercraft crew and a volunteer from British Divers Marine Life Rescue were called out to Humphrey Head near Grange-over-Sands at around 3pm on April 11.
Coastguards were concerned that a number of people who had walked out to assist the animal were in danger of being cut off by the incoming tide.
As there was no indication of the numbers involved, both the inshore lifeboat and inshore rescue hovercraft were launched.
Arriving on scene they found that in fact three porpoises had become stranded, two of which had unfortunately died.
The RNLI volunteers then helped local coastguard teams and a volunteer from British Marine Life Rescue to lift the remaining porpoise into the hovercraft. The stricken cetacean 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.