Spanish baby dolphin dies selfies: Sunbathers manhandling a stranded dolphin at a popular beach resort while taking photos leads to its death and uproar.
A baby dolphin has died off the coast of southern Spain after beach goers handled the mammal while taking selfie photos.
At the time, the mammal, still of breast feeding age had lost its mother and had become stranded in shallow waters.
Piqued by the sight of the ‘lovable dolphin’ bathers at the packed beach proceeded to pull it from the sea, all the while stroking it and lining up for selfies.
The scene led to marine conservationists rushing to the scene only to discover the baby dolphin already dead.
Notice of the dolphin’s death came after Equinac, a group dedicated to the protection of marine wildlife posted the incident on its Facebook page.
Read the post, ‘Humans are the most irrational animal there is. Many people are unable to feel empathy for a living being which is frightened, starving hungry, without its mother and terrified.
‘In their selfishness, all they want is to photograph it and touch it, even if the animal is suffering from stress.’
In its report, Equinac said a lifeguard ‘lost his nerve when he saw hundreds of people rushing towards the animal’.
Added the report, ‘The animal was submitted to the curiosity of those who wanted to photograph and touch it.
Equinox estimated by the time the baby dolphin was handled and its death a mere 15 minutes had elapsed.
According to the dailymail the incident happened last Friday at Spain’s Mojacar beach, a popular seaside resort with British expats and holiday makers in the province of Almeria.
Noted Equinac in its post which soon went viral, ‘The photographs showed children touching the animal, unintentionally covering the spiracle (blowhole).
‘It’s not an animal for children or adults to caress.
‘Cetaceans are very susceptible to stress, and crowding round it to take photos and to touch it causes them a big shock which greatly accelerates a cardiorespiratory failure, which is what happened.
‘We’re not saying that the bathers were responsible for it becoming stranded. It became stranded because it was sick or because it lost its mother, without whom it cannot survive.
‘But crowding round to photograph and touch it of course causes these animals to become extremely stressed.’
The group said the bathers should have called emergency services.
They added: ‘Maybe we would not have been able to save it, but we would have tried.’
Social media users flooded the post with comments, with many criticizing the actions of those eager to get the perfect ‘summer photo.’
‘When will we be civilized in this country? When will we learn to respect others? Be it human or animal.’ one commenter posted.
While another commentator was even more direct, writing, ‘I can not imagine the fear this poor creature was feeling. Not only was it yearning for the safety and protection of it’s mother but enduring the relentless terror it at the hands of these foolish, careless, people, all the while feeling, the breathe and life being taken away. Stupid people – all in the name of getting that “perfect selfie” with no regard to the innocent life they took away.’
The incident in Spain follows that of a similar episode last April when sunbathers in Argentina were branded ‘selfie-taking scum’ after being blamed for taking a dolphin out of the water and posing for selfies.
Prosectors there launched an investigation to discover who took the animal, from an endangered species, from the water.
A tourist who filmed the scenes later said it was already dead before it was paraded along the beach, south of Buenos Aires.
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