TUF 19's Cathal Pendred rescues a baby dolphin on his day off
While you were sleeping in on Sunday morning, Ultimate Fighter 19 competitor Cathal Pendred was out for a walk on the beach with his girlfriend when he spotted a group of people looking into the ocean at a distressing situation.
As it turns out the crowd was gathered because a baby dolphin had washed up on shore, injured and frightened, unable to get back into the ocean without the currents pushing him onto the beach.
Pendred decided to offer a hand along with another onlooker to help the baby dolphin get back into the water safely.
"I was at a wedding down the countryside on the west coast of Ireland on Saturday. The next day, myself and my girlfriend went for a walk on the beach which was tight beside the hotel we were staying in," Pendred told FOX Sports.
"We saw a big crowd of people down by the water and we walked down to see what was happening. We were told by the other people looking on that there was a baby dolphin that was quite injured and kept getting pushed back to shore by the waves. There was a man in the water trying to help the dolphin and I went in to help. The man told me he had been there for a while trying to push him back out but the dolphin kept getting washed back in. The man said he was now exhausted so I told him I would take over trying to help."
Pendred took it upon himself to help the dolphin get back into the water, but it was no easy work. As Pendred tells it, the ocean currents and the rocky terrain nearby made it a difficult job, but eventually he was able to help save the dolphin from further injury or even death.
"I continued trying to push the dolphin out past the waves but he continued to get washed back in. He was bleeding and had a lot of cuts so I think it was due to these injuries that he wasn't strong enough to swim past the break," Pendred said.
"At one point the current dragged him into a very rocky, shallow area of the beach and the dolphin became stuck. I couldn't push him as his underside was scratching off the rocks and cutting him. So that's when I picked up the dolphin and brought him to a deeper, less rocky area. I eventually was able to push him out past the waves and into the deeper part of the water. I stayed around for a while to make sure he wasn't brought back in. And when I realized he wasn't going to getting washed back, I headed for the hotel because I was wet and freezing."
Pendred was able to get a picture snapped of him saving the dolphin, which he posted on his Twitter account after everything calmed down again and the sea animal was saved.
I just spent an hour in the sea at Doonbeg trying to save a baby dolphin. He was very hurt but alive and well now! ? pic.twitter.com/LlteQKznHj
— Cathal Pendred (@PendredMMA) April 27, 2014
"It wasn't my typical walk on the beach, but I felt great about it afterwards," Pendred said.
A strange calm washed over Pendred as he entered the ocean that day. Whether it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things, at that moment he became a Marine biologist. Thankfully there were no golf balls involved.
