Florida biologists had an exciting start to this year when on January 25th, they had to form a human chain to save a dolphin’s life.

According to Good News Network Brittany Baldrica, a senior rescue biologist with Clearwater Marine Aquarium, had gotten a call that a stray dolphin was hanging out in a canal around Clearwater. The caller reported they had seen the dolphin for the past four days, and they were concerned it was hurt or lost since it had not moved out of the small water way.

Baldrica pointed out “He was behaviorally ok at that point and then upon talking to other people within the residency, they had said the animal may have been there for at least four days, so we were just concerned he got separated from other animals.”

Ultimately, Baldrica decided it was necessary for her to get a team together and intervene. After gathering a group of 28 biologists from multiple agencies and herself, she planned to create a “sound barricade.”

Baldrica told Good News Network “The goal was to not put hands on the animal. The goal was to just be a barrier that was novel to the animal, so we wanted to create a physical barrier as well as an auditory barrier, so we had somebody behind us that was banging on a boat, revving their engine and then we were splashing the water and moving forward towards the animal, so we were giving the animal the option to swim through the bridge on its own.”

Thankfully, with the help of volunteers around the neighborhood and the biologist, they were able to successfully rescue the stray dolphin. Baldrica left us on a goodnote and told a local Fox affiliate that following the call, they continued to monitor the dolphin for 18 days.