Dolphin gets lost off Vietnam’s Cam Ranh coast

On June 16, an adult dolphin got caught up in the shallows near Long Beach (Bai Dai) near Cam Ranh Alma Resort in Cam Ranh Town, Khanh Hoa Province. Rescue worker Nguyen Ngoc Tan and two colleagues approached the animal and detected signs of minor injury.

Five minutes after the team scrambled to contact wildlife conservation and research experts, the dolphin managed its way back to deep water.

Tan said many beachgoers were excited knowing that it's a dolphin as the animal was rarely seen at this beach area.

After the video was posted on social media, it immediately went viral, garnering 40,000 views since Friday. Vietnamese netizens remarked it was a "strange," "rare" and "surprising" phenomenon, calling for the animals protection.

Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, general director of the Cam Ranh Alma Resort, said, "We have never seen dolphins appear near the shore like that. It is probably thanks to favorable conditions following the social distancing restrictions."

Last April, videos of dolphins swimming in groups off the coast of popular beach destinations Nha Trang and Binh Thuan in central Vietnam sparked much excitement among Vietnamese netizens.

Cam Ranh, an hour south of its much busier sister Nha Trang Bay in Khanh Hoa Province, boasts pristine and mesmerizing beaches yet to be marred by human endeavor.

In recent years, dolphin pods have appeared in waters off Hoi An Town in the central province of Quang Nam and Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.

Whales and other cetaceans including dolphins are considered sacred by Vietnamese fishermen who believe that saving injured whales and dolphins and giving proper burials to those that die ashore would bless them with luck, good weather, bountiful harvests and protection while at sea.