A tranquil fishing trip turned "crazy" for three men from New Zealand when a dolphin weighing over 400 kilograms (900 pounds) seemed to fall from the sky before landing abruptly on their small vessel. Nobody was seriously injured when the 3.4-meter (11-foot) bottlenose dolphin jumped aboard the open-deck boat on Friday, said Dean Harrison, the owner of the approximately 4.5-meter (just under 16-foot) vessel.
The men alerted the New Zealand conservation agency and were instructed to head to a boat ramp an hour away, where workers were expected to assist the dolphin. One man sustained minor injuries on an arm, where the juvenile male dolphin brushed against his back and shoulder, but the three fishermen and the dolphin did not suffer further injuries.
However, returning the majestic creature to the sea was not an option for the trio due to its size. “We looked at the dolphin, still alive and breathing, and thought, we need to start taking care of it and figure out what to do,” Harrison said.
“One minute everything was fine and then, like a lightning bolt, there’s a big dolphin in our boat shaking everything and breaking stuff.” The animal's movements broke “every fishing rod we had on the boat” and severely damaged the bow as the trio clung to the sides of the vessel, Harrison said.
The men saw a shadow cross in front of the bright summer sun and heard a crash before chaos ensued. “This one decided to jump on board and say hello,” Harrison commented.
Along the way, the trio used a hose to keep the animal wet and protected it from the sun using a wet towel featuring images of the All Blacks rugby team.
Onshore, members of a local Māori tribe prayed for the dolphin before it was returned to the ocean with the help of a tractor. The helpers named the animal, which was between two and three years old: Tohu, meaning “sign” in the Māori language. Tohu is now also the name of Dean Harrison's boat.
“The dolphin was able to swim and we could leave, and we all have a story to tell,” said Harrison. “It’s a good ending to a situation that could have been very different.”
