If you are a dolphin and the word gets out that you are “out-of-habitat,” you might want to surrender to the authorities, or at least hope for luck.
Such luck happened this past June 17 when a dolphin relocation maneuver took place in a pond system near Grand Isle, Louisiana.
As boat engines whirred, the final scene was coming in place for a saga that began almost two years earlier, August 29, 2021. That was the day of the wrath of Hurricane Ida.
No one knows exactly how it happened as the 150 mph, Category 4 storm churned the waters of the Gulf and its tributaries, but it is common in situations like that for marine mammals and sea turtles to be washed away into inland waterways or stranded on land. Sometimes they are not spotted for months. Among the displaced was a particular dolphin already known by marine researchers who kept count of mammals in the ‘hood.
Property owners in the Grand Isle area, who were surveying post-Ida structural damage, had first spotted dolphins out of place in connecting ponds by September 2021. In January 2022 marine authorities were notified about the out-of-place dolphins. And there was a surprise – a dolphin calf. It is uncertain if the infant was born before the storm and then rode in with her mom, or if the blessed event happened after the arrival. I think it was the latter because it would have been hard for a calf to survive what must have been a rough ride. Once discovered, mom and child were surviving peacefully.
There was some good news. The pond where the pair now lived had ample food supplies, salinity and tidal flow. The problem was that there was no outlet to the Gulf of Mexico.
What would happen next would be supervised by the Audubon Nature Institute’s Coastal Wildlife Network, where Gabriella Vazquez works. Her job title is long: She is the,”Audubon Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding and Rehab Coordinator.”
Gabriella and related support groups wanted to return the dolphins to the Gulf, but it was determined that they would have to wait at least a year before the calf could be old enough to undergo such a move.
During that time the two dolphins were closely watched and even given names. Taking from the popular TV sitcom series “Schitt’s Creek” (note the first name is spelled correctly and not as commonly pronounced), the Audubon folks named the parent dolphin “Moira” after the program’s mother character. The offspring was named “Alexis” after Moira’s daughter.
June 17 was re-location day for Moira and Alexis. They were herded to a shallow area of the pond where they were surrounded by a boatload of volunteer animal-handlers, who lifted the two onto a stretcher-like device. From there, the wayward mammals were taken to an “animal ambulance.” The Ford transit van carried the rescued and the rescuers to a pier that opened to the Gulf. Since this was the first time that the dolphin duo had not been immersed in water, they were given a gentle sponge bath as they lay of their sides.
When they reached the Gulf landing, the two were gently nudged into the water where they instinctively knew what to do. They offered no goodbyes, threw no kisses. The last that the waterlogged volunteers saw of the pair was their fins quickly descending.
One of those fins would play an important role in the rest of the saga. An electronic satellite tag was placed on the mother. For research, it would track her movements for the next few months.
According to Vazquez, in mid-July Moira’s was tracked as being near Port Fourchon in Lafourche Parish. (Interestingly, that’s near the same spot where Ida had made landfall in 2021.)
Dolphins tend to be territorial, so they seldom travel far. Moira and Alexis will likely live their lives in the vicinity of Grand Isle.
At least they are free now, and in-habitat.