RESCUERS USE STRETCHERS TO SAVE STRANDED DOLPHINS

Six dolphins who stubbornly refused efforts to free them from a shallow bay in northern New Brunswick appear to have been coaxed back to open ocean. “We don’t see them anymore,” Fisheries and Oceans Canada spokeswoman Krista Petersen said Friday. “They are definitely in the deeper water outside the stranding area.” Rescuers tried a new tactic Friday with the dolphins, which had been stranded near Lameque for more than a week. They used stretchers to ease the mammals across shallow areas. “At one point the dolphins got out of a deep area and got sort of stuck a bit on some sand, so they were able to put the stretchers underneath the bodies of the dolphins to help them move,” Petersen said. The animals were taken to open water and haven’t been seen since.