A dolphin that was washed into a Slidell retention pond was successfully rescued by authorities and sent to Mississippi for rehab. “Operation Flipper” pulled in teams from Sea World Rescue, the Audubon Institute, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff, and other groups to safely remove the dolphin and get it on its way out of the Northshore neighborhood.
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith told WWL-TV that he got a lot of calls from locals who were concerned about the aquatic mammal. Those calls came flooding in despite the fact that most citizens were themselves dealing with living without power.
“We got a lot of calls from people in this area concerned about this dolphin,” said Smith. “We’ve been coordinating (with other organizations) an operation to have him rescued so we can calm our citizens down here in the area.”
Smith said they normally would only get this volume of calls over a dog, or some other pet.
“This is pretty unusual and it is pretty amazing to see this much effort go into saving Flipper here,” said Smith.
Cars lined the retention pond to get a look at the spectacle and Smith said that caused traffic issues in the area.
“We do have a lot of spectators showing up.” said Smith.
Areas along Lake Pontchartrain were hit with storm surge and that appears to be how the creature got into the pond.
“The only way we can figure he got in was that the water got so high that he was pushed in from the water through a canal under a culvert, which is on the side of the levee, and into this little area between the road, the pumping station, and drainage pipe,” said Smith who added the dolphin was likely trapped when the water went down.
Smith hopes Flipper can be nursed back to health and let back into the wild.
“We’ve noticed some lesions on him so he is definitely going to need some medical attention but he seems to be swimming fine,” said Smith. “Our best is with Flipper and we hope that he gets the medical attention that he needs and get him released back into his natural habitat.”
Callers to WWL reported seeing the dolphin shortly after the hurricane blew through. The rescue took a few days to complete.
