[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Dolphin enjoys open water once again

 



Dolphin enjoys open water once again

Aug 14, 2012 5:05 PM EDT
By: Ken Suarez, FOX 13



LONGBOAT KEY (FOX 13) -
After a three-month rehab at Mote Marine Laboratory's hospital, Edna the bottlenose dolphin has returned to the open waters of the gulf.

Scientists and volunteers released her from a boat about two miles off Longboat Key on Tuesday. They hoped that she would be accepted into a pod swimming nearby.

"You can't assume anything with dolphins," said Randall Wells, director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Project at Mote Marine Lab. "They have a big smile on their face, but they have a lot of things that go in their lives. Sometimes they don't get along."

Edna was stranded at the beginning of June. Members of a turtle project from Mote Marine found her. She was underweight and was having a hard time breathing.

At first, she had to be held up in the water and didn't have the strength to swim.

"After about the first week, she began to show signs of swimming and to do better on her own," Cathy Marine, a Mote Marine volunteer, told FOX 13.

In the last few weeks, she showed signs that she was ready to be released. She began flapping her fins and seemed healthy again.

Edna may be gone, but scientists plans to keep up with her. They tagged her with device that will keep track of her using satellite technology.

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