Cape St Francis - The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), members of nature conservation organisations, and members of the public all pitched in to help rescue a dolphin stranded on rocks at Cape St Francis on Sunday.

"This morning, Sunday, 21st January, we had a rescue of a different kind," NSRI St Francis Bay station commander Sarah Smith said.

"One of our crew members was alerted to a stranded bottlenose dolphin approximately two metres in length off the Cape St Francis Lighthouse. He immediately contacted Dr Greg Hofmeyr from Bayworld Marine, who contacted me and requested official assistance," she said.

NSRI St Francis Bay crew were mobilised and went to the scene to assess the situation, finding the dolphin high and dry 25 metres from the outgoing tide on rocks.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), members of nature conservation organisations, and members of the public all pitched in to help rescue a dolphin stranded on rocks at Cape St Francis on Sunday. Video: NSRI website

Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) members arranged towels and buckets for water. The dolphin was bathed and wrapped in wet towels and after guidance from Hofmeyr, the dolphin was moved, using a Stokes basket stretcher, to the harbour where it was loaded onto the ski-boat "Sea Wolf" with the help of Brandon Kennedy and Marc White, Smith said.

"We took the dolphin just over a mile outside the harbour and released him. Conditions weren’t great with approximately four-metre swells and breaching over the harbour wall. But the dolphin swam confidently once in the water.

"We’d like to thank both Mark White and Brandon Kennedy as well as the initial people on the scene, Penny (volunteer at SANCCOB), and the gentleman who was walking his dogs who alerted everyone," Smith said.