After attracting the attention of bathers off an Almuñécar beach, the creature that first appeared in Motril has reappeared off La Caleta, in Salobreña.

A team belonging to Salvamento y Socorrismo were trying to help the dolphin, which has a damaged flipper yesterday between 15.00h and 20.00h, while the beach lifeguards established a perimeter around the operation to stop curious bathers crowding it.

The said team were following instructions given by a marine biologist from the oceanographic society based in Valencia. The team had been waiting for a specialised vessel with a pool to recover the animal, but which failed to appear.

As mentioned before, the baby dolphin has been hanging around this end of Costa Tropical, having first been spotted off Playa de Poniente in Motril and then Playa de San Cristóbal in Almuñécar. Yesterday the Guardia Civil located it again off Salobreña, who informed the Centro de Recuperación de Especies Marinas Amenazadas (Crema) so that they could deal with it.

However, Crema said that it was outside their authority so they passed it onto the Environment Board belonging to the Junta de Andalucía, who assured that they had sent an expert to the area. The Junta has stated that the dolphin is not “stranded” but in the sea which is its natural habitat. Consulted veterinarians say that its behaviour is “within what is normal” and does not require intervention.

“The best thing that we could do is to leave it in peace and wait for its mother or pod to find it,” said the Junta delegate for the Department of the Environment.

Crema, in the meantime, pointed out that owing to its early age it would be difficult to care for the dolphin without its mother.

Editorial comment: there was footage on social media of paddle surfers and snorkelers crowding around the animal, which is obviously stressing it out. We are all curious, which is why we are writing this and why you, the reader, are reading it, but one thing is following what is happening and quite another is physically bothering the creature in the water, by which we mean, bathers surrounding it, trying to touch it.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)