Japanese animal rescue volunteers saved a porpoise from a rice field after it was washed 2km inland by the March 11 tsunami, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday.
Ryo Taira and his group were in the devastated area around Sendai rescuing cats and dogs when they received a phone call that took them a while to comprehend, the mass-circulation daily said in an online report.
“There’s a dolphin in the rice fields!” said the caller, Masayuki Sato, 55, confusing the baby porpoise with the similar-looking sea mammal.
Photo: AFP / Asahi Shimbun
照片:法新社/朝日新聞
The volunteers rushed to the site at nearby Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, where they saw the animal — a finless porpoise, or “sunameli” (Neophocaena phocaenoides) — wriggling in a flooded rice field.
They made a stretcher from car parts and a futon mattress they found in the tsunami wreckage, and tried to catch the porpoise with a net.
When the animal eluded them, Taira waded into the field in his rubber boots and picked it up in his arms, the report said.
With local aquariums damaged by the disaster, the volunteers decided to cover the animal in wet towels, put it in their car and return it to the sea.
Sato, the caller, later told the Asahi: “Immediately after I spotted it, I realized I could not ignore it. I had to do something. This was also a victim of the tsunami.”
He said he remembered seeing the animal rescuers’ phone number on a poster in a quake and tsunami evacuation center.
Taira told the newspaper of his thoughts as he watched the animal swim off into the Pacific Ocean: “I don’t know if it will survive, but it’s much better than dying in a rice field, right? It’s good.”
(AFP)
日本《朝日新聞》週三報導,一隻新鼠海豚三月十一日被日本海嘯襲捲到內陸,日本動物救援志工在離海兩公里的稻田中救出這尾鼠海豚。
這個發行量大的日報在網路的一篇報導說,Ryo Taira與他同組(志工)在仙台四處搜救貓狗時,接到一通電話,但聽了半天才聽懂。
五十五歲的Masayuki Sato(在電話中)說:「有一隻海豚在稻田裡!」原來他將幼年新鼠海豚和與牠長相類似的海洋哺乳類動物混為一談。
這群志工們趕往在宮城縣石卷市附近的地點,在那裡看到這尾新鼠海豚或稱為「江豚」(學名:Neophocaena phocaenoides),在被淹沒的稻田內蠕動著。
他們用被海嘯襲捲的車體零件與日式床墊製作成一個擔架,並試圖以補網抓這尾新鼠海豚。
報導指出,當這尾海豚躲避他們,Taira穿著雨鞋涉水進入稻田內並將牠抱在他的手上。
因為當地水族館因這次災難受損,志工們決定用濕毛巾包覆這尾海豚,並驅車載牠前往海邊。
這位來電通報的Sato告訴《朝日新聞》說,「我看到牠後,我立刻發現我不能視而不見。我非得做些什麼。牠也是海嘯的受害者。」
他說他記得在地震海嘯避難所內的海報上,看過救援人員的電話。
看著這尾海豚游入太平洋時,Taira告訴這份平面媒體說,「我不知道牠將會不會活下來,不過這總比死在稻田裡好,不是嗎?這是好的。」
(法新社/翻譯:林亞蒂)
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