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SeaWorld's Florida and Texas Rescue Teams Join Forces

16 Aug 2016

The SeaWorld Orlando and SeaWorld San Antonio Rescue Team have joined forces with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network to help rescue a bottlenose dolphin that was tangled in fishing gear near South Padre Island in Texas.

After hours of searching, the devoted rescue teams retrieved the dolphin and untangled more than a kilogram of fishing gear, including hooks, leaders and fishing line.

Once the dolphin was freed, a SeaWorld Veterinarian and Animal Care Staff gave the dolphin a complete physical checkup, took blood samples and cultures and gave the dolphin antibiotics for possible infection due to the entanglement.  The animal was released immediately back in to the ocean.

Entanglement in fishing gear and similar items can lead to suffocation or internal bleeding if hooks and lures are swallowed by the animal. To help prevent harm to wild dolphins and other animals, it is best to dispose of old line and hooks properly and be mindful of fishing locations where animals are known to surface to breathe, so they do not become caught in cast lines.

SeaWorld Orlando’s Animal Rescue Team is on call 24/7 to save and care for injured, orphaned or ill animals. In collaboration with the government and other members of accredited stranding networks, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment operates one of the world’s most respected programs to rescue ill and injured marine animals, with the goal to rehabilitate and return to the ocean. SeaWorld animal experts have helped more than 28,000 animals in need - ill, injured, orphaned and abandoned - for more than five decades.


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