A baby dolphin has been rescued in Japan after being dumped in a rice field by a giant tsunami that hit the coast on 11 March. The dolphin was spotted in the flooded field, about a mile from the coast, said Ryo Taira (photo, at right), a pet-shop owner who has been rescuing animals abandoned after the 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami left 23,000 people dead or missing. "A man passing by said he had found the dolphin in the rice paddy, and that we had to do something to save it," the 32-year-old Taira told Reuters. Taira found the dolphin struggling in the shallow seawater and, after failing to net it, waded in to the field, which had yet to be sown with rice, to cradle the four foot animal in his arms. "It was pretty weak by then, which was probably the only reason we could catch it," he said.Rico says dolphins don't do well in fresh water, so getting it back into the ocean was a good idea...
Taira and some friends wrapped the dolphin in wet towels and drove it back to the sea, where they set it free. The dolphin appeared to perk up when it was back in the Pacific, he said. "I don't know if it will live, but it's certainly a lot better than dying in a rice paddy," Taira told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
26 March 2011
What's 'awww' in Japanese?
Elaine Lies has a Reuters story in The Christian Science Monitor about an amazing rescue following the tsunami:
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