An estimated 15 Pacific white-sided dolphins became trapped in a tidepool Saturday near the shore in Qualicum Beach.

“I went to my husband and said there are dolphins that are stranded and we need to go right now and we need to see if we can help,” Samantha Dueck of Parksville told CHEK News.

She’d read about the dolphins on a Facebook page called Comox Valley Wildlife sightings and went to see them herself. She moved to the Island from Manitoba last August and is wowed by the Island every day. 

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“It was surreal. Being from the Prairies, I didn’t even know we had dolphins, so yeah, it was cool to see them,” she added.

Someone from Fisheries and Oceans Canada was already on site monitoring the dolphins and said they appeared to be in good condition.

“I said should we get some shovels,” she said with a laugh. “But he said there was way too much sand. I was like we need to help.”

So how did the dolphins end up entrapped in the tidepool?

A whale researcher says they might have been chasing food when they became entrapped as the tide went out.

Or there could be a more likely explanation.

“What’s possible and perhaps even more likely is that there were killer whales around and these dolphins were trying to hide from the orcas,” said Jared Towers, executive director of Bay Cetology in Alert Bay. 

“It was cool. In a sense I was sad because they were stranded but they were so close and we could see them close up,” Dueck said.

Towers says it’s not uncommon for dolphins to come close to shore when they’re trying to evade predators but getting entrapped like this uncommon.

“It is very interesting. It’s novel, you know it’s not often that Pacific white-sided dolphins get entrapped and especially in a tide pool. I mean this is a very, very novel case,” Towers said. 

“You think they are smarter than that right?” he was asked. “Well, I think a lot of the smartest animals on the planet do silly things from time to time and entrapment is a good example of that.” 

The dolphins eventually escaped when the tide came in and the entire experience was an unforgettable one for Samantha Dueck.

“The island is beyond my imagination, it’s just wild,” she added.

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