KIHEI - The combined efforts of about 40 passers-by served to wrestle about 10 dolphins back into deeper water when they tried to beach themselves in front of the Sugar Beach Resort late Thursday afternoon.
Kerry Glass, a visitor from Phoenix, said he was walking along the beach, talking to his girlfriend in Arizona, when he "saw a guy near the canoe place with a megaphone" who seemed to be yelling at somebody in the water.
Not sure of what was up, he stopped someone else who told him that dolphins were trying to beach themselves. Glass had never been near a dolphin before, but he decided, "we got to help." So he waded in and began wrestling the critters out to deeper water.
Some of them immediately came back, and within moments there were up to 40 people in groups of three and four thrashing around and trying to push the dolphins back.
While this is not the approved approach, it seemed to work - at least for the moment. By the time police, the Marine Mammal Stranding Team and Department of Land and Natural Resources officers arrived, all the dolphins were back in the water.
Kihei resident Dan Perez, who teamed with Glass to wrangle dolphins while Glass' friend from Phoenix, Justin Grubb, got it on video, said the last one they handled "was huge." He spread his arms to show that he couldn't have gotten them around the animal.
Glass and Perez said they wrestled, pushed, shoved and strained their muscles to get the reluctant animals to move. "Three or four got to the sand," Perez said.
They maneuvered the dolphins out to water up to their chests and after a while the pod swam off. The rescuers estimated there were at least 20 dolphins. Some stayed offshore; others tried to beach themselves up to three times.
The stranding team would have preferred that the helpers had left the animals alone and called the stranding and entanglement hot line at (888) 256-9840 for advice on the best approach in that situation.
Ed Lyman, the marine mammal response coordinator who had spent the past week trying to untangle a whale for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Marine Sanctuary, said deciding what to do "is a tough one" because there are a lot of factors to consider.
Dolphins are social, and if a sick one is trying to beach but is prevented, the whole group may try again later and, unnoticed, die before they are discovered. Members of the stranding team were making plans to patrol South Maui beaches with night-vision binoculars overnight, but there were only a few team members and miles and miles of beach.
There is also "a degree of concern about public safety," Lyman said, although Glass and Perez said the dolphins didn't present any danger to them - they just weren't easy to move.
Nicole Davis, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Division's Pacific Islands Regional Office, the leader of the stranding team, praised police for quickly determining the proper response - to advise people to wait - although by the time they were in a position to advise, the stranding episode was over.
Police officer Lewis Gamble said he understood that the rule is "don't touch 'em." He was one of the first two officers to reach the beach.
Grubb got eight minutes of video, which he downloaded onto the stranding team's computer on the spot. His footage showed dolphins rolling sideways in water inches deep and his friend, Glass, hopping around trying to collar the animals. However, the sun was low and there was too much glare in the video for the stranding team to positively identify the species.
Lyman said spinner dolphins would be the most likely candidate for the area, but he wouldn't commit himself, even after watching the video several times.
The crowd of humans and the crowd of dolphins both dispersed quickly, and before all the stranding team (some of whom were at the whale sanctuary not far away) arrived, all the dolphins and most of the humans had left.
* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.
