Whale / Dolphin Rescue

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Just after arriving at work one morning in late July (the 27th I think), several of my colleagues and I were told to 'stand by' as a report had just come in of a stranded Whale at Ruby Bay (about 15km from Motueka and 22km from Richmond).
One staff member (Gavin) was sent out ahead, to check out the sighting and report back. While others gathered up gear, (wetsuits, stretchers, cameras, buckets etc..) for a possible whale rescue. We knew that only relatively small whales were ever successfully rescued and that larger animal always died or had to be euthanised, so there was an air of both excitement and apprehension amongst the staff.
After about 20 minutes we heard that rather than the animal being a whale it was in fact a common dolphin (which despite their name are not actually that common!). Shortly after seven DOC staff headed off to the scene where they found a few locals, Gavin and a 10ft dolphin splashing around in 300mm of water. The dolphin had come into the large tidal bay and gone too far - grounding itself in the shallows. The tide was still coming in but would soon turn and the animal would be stranded high and dry if we couldn't get it out to deeper water soon!
We deployed the stretchers, with the intention of lifting the dolphin enough to turn it and get it to slightly deeper water so it could swim freely. Tasman Bay has huge areas of tidal sand flats with the tide retreating hundreds of meters.
With six of us in the water with it, and one steady hand on its pectoral fin, it was successfully guided out some 200m or so (still only about 3 ft deep), where it slowly, but surely, headed out into the bay. We monitored if for another hour or so while it stayed in the relatively shallow waters, until it disappeared from our sight. Then packed up, a short drive back to work, return the gear, hang up the wet suits and into the tea tearoom for a well deserved cup of coffee.