Stranded Spinner dolphin I came across during a Kemp's Ridley patrol

A set of my photos on Flickr

I do volunteer Kemp's Ridley sea turtle patrols for the National Parks Service's Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at Padre Island National Seashore. April 17th of 2010 was the tail end of a very  stormy few days.  During my patrol, I came upon a stranded spinner dolphin.  I called the Seashore and they sent some personnel and they also called the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network.  They also contacted another patroller who was about a mile away, she happened to have some towels with her.  We kept her (the dolphin) warm, wet and calm while waiting about 20-30 minutes for the professionals to arrive; it took a little while because they had been involved in Earth Day activities.  Unfortunately, she wasn't able to recover, though she had excellent care; she died three days later.

These are some photographs that I took at the time. There are descriptions of what is going on in most of the photographs.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/qnr/sets/72157623878383410/

Care to donate a few satoshi? It would really help.