Rescuers come to the aid of a dozen beached dolphins on Cape Cod

More than a dozen dolphins were rescued and released from a Cape Cod Bay Beach over the weekend, the Cape Cod Times reports.

Rescuers from the International Fund for Animal Welfare spent Saturday working in Barnstable as 10 dolphins were stranded on Sandy Neck.

At least five more dolphins were rescued from Chapin Beach in Dennis later Saturday night.

At Barnstable, a crew of bystanders worked to keep the dolphins wet while waiting for the IFAW team to show up.

The IFAW team arrived on the scene and helped refloat the dolphins back out, but two of them stranded themselves again in Barnstable Harbor, said IFAW spokeswoman Kerry Branon.

“Our team is with them now checking their health and will plan to release at Scusset Beach if their health permits,” Branon said at around 2 p.m. Saturday. By late afternoon, the two had been successfully released at Scusset Beach in Sandwich, Branon said.

IFAW also was continuing to keep an eye out for the remaining eight dolphins in case they strand themselves again, Branon said.

By late afternoon, two other dolphins were reported stranded in Wellfleet near the pier, and an IFAW team was headed there, Branon said.

Branon wrote in an email Sunday that the dolphins stranded at Chapin were taken to West Dennis Beach for immediate release.

Cape Cod Times reporters Sean F. Driscoll, Sam Mintz and Mary Ann Bragg contributed to this report.