Dolphins herded to open water off Lamque

Six Atlantic white-sideddolphins have been herded to open water byfishery officers andexperts fromMarine Animal Response Society.

Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokespersonKristaPetersen says they are continuing to monitor the situation to see if the dolphins will leave the area.

The dolphins were herded out theLamqueharbour on Friday morning. They hadbeen strandedin northeastern New Brunswick for nine days.

Five boats withfishery officers, MARS experts and volunteers useda combination of acoustic sonar, bait andplaceda weighted barrier wall behind the dolphins.

The dolphins were herded from the harbourto the sandbar andsome of the dolphinswere able to swim over. Petersen said the dolphinsthat were unable to do so were moved to open water with dolphin stretchers.

Atlantic white-sided dolphinsare a native species to the North Atlantic near the Acadian Peninsula.

Seven dolphins appear to have swum into the areaat high tide and would notleave the safety of the relatively deep area near the town's bridge.One of the poddied since the dolphins were stranded eight days ago.

To reach open ocean, the dolphins needed to swim through a kilometre-long, shallow channel.