Dozens of Nova Scotians acted quickly to save a beached whale at a provincial park in Dartmouth, N.S.
The Marine Animal Response Society (MARS), the organization that coordinated the rescue, says the pilot whale was found in the sands of Rainbow Haven beach on Monday morning.
With the tide slowly moving away from the beach, the rescue team and dozens of concerned beachgoers -- including surfers, hikers and firefighters -- helped guide the whale back to the water using floatation pontoons.
Andrew Reid, response coordinator at MARS told CTV Atlantic he hopes the whale will be able to rejoin its pod safely.
鈥淚t鈥檚 unusual for a pilot whale to be by itself,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e an extremely social species so when we get single stranded animals it is always a concern there's an underlying health issue.鈥�
Reid says the whale looked to be in fairly good health so it was best to get the whale back into the ocean as soon as possible.
The past year has been An estimated 16 of the already endangered right whales died in 2017. Twelve of those deaths happened in Canada.
With a report from CTV Atlantic鈥檚 Marie Adsett
In case you haven't seen enough whale rescue pics!
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