A rescue team has been working to ensure the safety of a group of bottlenose dolphins that became stranded along Cape Cod's shores.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare says 14 of the marine mammals were stranded Monday afternoon at Linnell Landing in Brewster, Massachusetts — the largest mass stranding of bottlenose dolphins ever in the Northeast.
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Three of the dolphins were confirmed to be dead, and IFAW worked to save the rest.
"Upon arrival, 11 dolphins were still alive, and the team immediately began preparing to refloat them with the changing tide," IFAW biologist and animal responder Kira Kasper said in a statement Tuesday.
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Rescuers fitted the dolphins with temporary identification tags, putting a temporary satellite on one of them to track them after their release. Just before 7 a.m. Tuesday, IFAW found the animals had restranded in Wellfleet.
Crews responded with IFAW's custom-built mobile dolphin rescue unit, a vehicle that is able to transport them.
"The tide was incoming until 11:16 AM, but the dolphins could not be released where they stranded," Kasper said. "Our team moved quickly to extract the animals from treacherous mud, provide necessary health assessments and treatments, and transport the dolphins to Herring Cove in Provincetown, where they were all released back to the ocean."
IFAW noted that 26 common and bottlenose dolphins had been stranded in the last two weeks. Kasper said 175 live dolphins have been stranded since the end of June, "which is over 2.5 times our annual average."
More on Cape Cod dolphin strandings
"This mass stranding comes toward the end of an unprecedented summer for our team due to the sheer number of dolphin strandings," Kasper said.
Marine animal strandings are common on Cape Cod due to its unique features, with dolphins often becoming disoriented by tidal movements and sandbars in the shallow coastal waters, IFAW said.
The Wellfleet Fire Department says it helped IFAW, noting that the dolphins were stranded next to the road to Lieutenant Island. The road floods during high tide, fire officials said.
Firefighters used water to keep the dolphins cool and moist before they could be transported.
