Here’s something you don’t see very often – in fact its only the second time in the 7+ years I’ve lived here in Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne.

It’s may end up being quite a sad tale…

Last time it was a porpoise and this time it’s a dolphin, that has somehow got separated from it’s pod, and has ended up swimming aimlessly in the outer harbour boat channel of Sovereign Harbour.

As you can see from the photo, a lot of wellwishers turned out to watch with their fingers crossed that everything would turn out ok…

The story continues…

The unfortunate dolphin first appeared last night and it was dark before any of the marine welfare agenicies could send someone to look.

In these situations, it can often be more stressful for the animal if you try to intervene, so it’s normal to watch from a distance to see whether it is able to make it’s own way back out to sea.

When, after a couple of tide changes, it was obvious that this wasn’t going to happen, the RNLI inshore boat and a couple of marine rescue workers managed to coax the dolphin out to sea, and monitor it.

The story was picked up by the local Meridian ITV news this evening, and included video footage.

Unlike the porpoise from a few years ago which didn’t survive, the last we heard of the dolphin was that it had made it out to sea and was looking ok, though whether it could find the rest of the pod was uncertain.

I’m sure, like me, you’ll keep your fingers crossed ;-)