A pod of dolphins has become trapped by sea ice near Heart’s Delight-Islington, Newfoundland -- a small town roughly one-and-a-half hour’s drive from St. John’s.
“Ice drove them in,” retired local fisherman Charlie Sooley told NTV on Monday. “First time we’ve seen them in this area… They don’t usually come in here.”
According to Sooley, the pod became trapped in a small pool of open water within the town’s natural harbour when onshore winds drove sea ice into Newfoundland’s Trinity Bay Sunday morning.
If the wind does not change direction, Sooley warned, the animals may be in peril.
“I think there’s about six of them there,” Sooley said. “They’re not bad now because they got a bit of water… (But) if the wind comes southerly, the ice comes in (and it’s) going to pin them and (then) drive them in the beach.”
Unless the wind blows the ice back to sea, Sooley thinks the only thing that could save the pod would be an icebreaker.
“The only way you’ll get them out of here (is) if you had the small icebreaker come in and make a trench in here for them, because outside there’s all open water,” he explained. “So once they get out the harbour, they’re all right. But getting out, they won’t go out through that ice because they just can’t come up and down.”
Speaking to NTV, a Fisheries and Oceans Canada spokesperson said that the department is aware of the dolphins and monitoring the situation.
With a report from NTV
