WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – A dolphin weighing 400 kilograms (900 pounds) turned into “fearless” for three New Zealand men when it appeared to have fallen from the sky before colliding with a small boat.
No one was seriously injured when the 11-foot bottle north dolphin jumped on an open-top boat on Friday, said Dean Harrison, owner of the near 16-foot boat.
Harrison and two friends were fishing near a rock hole. It was a picturesque place on the far north coast of New Zealand’s North Island, and the dolphins swayed forward. The man saw the shadows in the bright summer sun and heard the omnipotent boom before chaos unfolded.
“I decided to board this and say hello,” Harrison said. “A minute is all right, then like a lightning strike, there’s a big dolphin in our boat, smacking everything, breaking everything.”
The creature’s burning snapped “all the fishing rods we put in the boat,” Harrison said, causing severe damage to the bow as the trio clings to the side of the boat. One man suffered minor injuries to the arm, and a boy male dolphin grazing on his back and shoulders, but all three fishermen and dolphins were not injured.
But bringing the majestic creatures back into the sea was not an option for the trio due to their size.
“We saw the dolphins still alive and breathing, and we thought we had to start looking after him and understanding what to do,” Harrison said. “He’s stuck with boats for now, so he’s coming in for a ride.”
The man warned New Zealand’s conservation agency and pointed at a boat ramp an hour away, where workers waited to help the dolphins. Along the way, the trio used hoses to keep the creatures wet and protected from the sun using wet towels depicting players from the All Black Srugby teams.
On the coast, local Maori members prayed for dolphins before using tractors to return to the sea. Helpers have named creatures between 2 and 3 years old. This means “signature” in Maori.
Tohu is now also the name of Dean Harrison’s boat.
“The dolphins became swims and we had to leave. “It’s a good ending in a situation that could have been very different.”
