A live white-beaked dolphin, a species that rarely strands in Dutch waters, has been found on the beach at Egmond aan Zee and is being assessed by vets at marine rescue charity SOS Dolfijn.
Walkers found the animal in the surf on Sunday evening and alerted the charity, which moved the dolphin to its rehabilitation facility at Anna Paulowna in Noord-Holland.
A vet’s initial inspection found no visible injuries, a SOS Dolfijn spokesperson told regional broadcaster NH Nieuws.
Rescuers wrapped the animal in wet cloth to keep it cool. They decided against returning it to the sea while its condition is unclear. “If we push it back there’s a chance it strands again,” Snijders told broadcaster NOS, “and then the stress is much worse.”
White-beaked dolphins grow to 2.5 to 3 metres, have a stubby snout and a high sickle-shaped dorsal fin, and live mainly in the north Atlantic.
The case follows several similar strandings on the Dutch coast recently. A Risso’s dolphin washed up dead on a Zeeland beach last month, the first in more than 50 years, and a 16-metre sperm whale beached at Renesse around the same time. In January, a rare beluga drew crowds when it was spotted off the Egmond–Castricum coast – the same stretch where Sunday’s dolphin came ashore.
Marine specialists have linked some recent strandings to currents carrying animals from the English Channel into the shallow North Sea, where deep-water species can struggle to navigate their way back out.
