Baby dolphin dies of stress after tourists pass her round on beach for holiday snaps
A TERRIFIED baby dolphin died after tourists crowded around it in the sea to pose for photographs.
The small female, young enough to still be suckling, lost its mother and became stranded in shallow waters off the coast of southern Spain.
Marine conservationists raced to the scene but the dolphin was already dead when they arrived.
The holidaymakers were slammed by activists for hastening the animal’s death by frightening it as they crowded round for pictures.
Equinac, a group which protects marine wildlife in the area, said the bathers were ‘obsessed’ with taking
‘Frightened and starving’
photographs. The group said: ‘ 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.’
The incident happened last Friday at Mojacar, a resort popular with British expats and holidaymakers in Almeria.
It was not clear if any Britons were involved in the incident. Equinac said hundreds of bathers rushed towards the animal desperate for a glimpse or a selfie.
Equinac experts arrived 15 minutes later but the animal was already dead. The group said: ‘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.
It added: ‘Maybe we would not have been able to save it, but we would have tried.’