June 6, 2013: Kimberly Durham, Rescue Program Director for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, tends to a Risso's dolphin which the foundation rescued from a sandbar in Oak Beach, on the south shore of Long Island, New York. (AP/Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation)
OAK BEACH, N.Y. – A dolphin has been rescued from a sandbar off the southern shore of Long Island.
The Risso's dolphin is a 9-foot, 600-pound female. Staff from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation made the rescue Thursday near Oak Beach with help from the Coast Guard.
Foundation rescue program director Kimberly Durham says the dolphin will be closely monitored. It is being treated for dehydration and gastric bleeding.
It's the second Risso's dolphin recovered by the program in two weeks.
An adult female was found in the Hudson River 26 miles north of Manhattan. It later died of what officials believe is starvation from plastic bags blocking her stomach.
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