Entrapped Long Beach Harbor Dolphin Free

Updated noon Wednesday: The work of port divers did the trick, and the marooned dolphin was able to swim over metal walls at high tide, it appears. the mammal rescuer on the scene told reporters that this morning, the young dolphin was gone.

Updated at 6:20 p.m. with Port of Long Beach information.

A young dolphin is trapped in the construction area of a $1 billion Middle Harbor rebuild in Long Beach Harbor, and the chief mammal rescue expert said that welders are currently creating large holes through which the dolphin may swim out at midnight high tide.

Port welders working underwater were torching six-feet-wide holes that the dolphin's sonar will help it find when the "super high tide" hits at 11 p.m. or midnight, said Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue. He was on site when the Bolsa Chica wetlands dolphin became marooned in brackish lagoon water last week. That dolphin swam out to sea over the weekend.

"This dolphin is not in as bad of a situation as the wetlands dolphin," Wallerstein told Patch from his observation perch at the Port of Long Beach late Tuesday. "This one has plenty of room to swim around, and these walls were going to come down anyway."

Picture an industrial size wharf, with metal legs, then picture the wharf top removed. The remaining legs are what the dolphin apparently swam over at earlier high tide, possibly Monday norning. When the tide receded, the dolphin, thought to be 2 or 3 years old based on its size, was stranded in a big oceanic construction zone.

Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue said welders are trying to open the walls in three areas so the animal can escape. If that doesn't work, he says, rescuers will be back in the morning to find other ways to free the dolphin.

Port of Long Beach spokesman Art Wong said the dolphin's location is in the center of a massive $1 billion modernization project known as the Middle Harbor Project, so the Port is eager to help free the dolphin to prevent it from any risk. The welding holes are on a structure that was already destined to be replaced, south of the south end of where Pier D Avenue dead ends.

"Now the dolphin is in there feeding," said Wong of the Port. "We're more concenred because [it's] in a construction area, so we don't want to cause it any harm with noise. We hope tomorrow morning we come to work and the dolphin is gone on its way."

The $1.2 billion project will replace what Wong called two older shipping terminals, and so far, the dolphin "hasn't disrupted any of that work. There's pile driving a few hundred meters from the dolphin, but [Wallerstein] said the dolphin's okay. 

"It seems to be having a great time in the water, but as soon as we can encourage it to move on, the better," Wong added.

Wallerstein was the expert who spent days observing the dolphin who at first seemed trapped, then seemed timid or bullied by fellow dolphins, in a lagoon at Bolsa Chica Wetlands.