A juvenile dolphin that repeatedly beached itself in Venice Beach has died, despite the rescue efforts of Los Angeles County lifeguards and the Marine Mammal Center rescue team.
The dolphin was first spotted beaching itself around 4 p.m. near the Brooks lifeguard tower at the end of Brooks Avenue, according to Pono Barnes, an ocean lifeguard specialist for the L.A. County Fire Department.
Rescuers tried to steer the approximately 6-foot dolphin back out to sea but it would just head back to shore each time, Barnes said.
After being unable to get the dolphin back to deeper water, lifeguards helped a team from the Marine Mammal Center remove the mammal from the water for the rescue team to transport it to a local care facility, officials said.
But the dolphin did not survive, Barnes said, and it died shortly after the rescue team picked it up for transport.
“Unfortunately shortly after transport, the dolphin succumbed to its illness,” county lifeguard officials announced in an Instagram post Friday.
It was unclear what ailed the creature, but Barnes said it appeared to have been ill.
He said the area has recently seen a red tide — a type of algae bloom that can sometimes produce toxins harmful to sea creatures and humans — but it’s unknown whether that played a role in the mammal’s death.