A dolphin which swam up the Welsh River Dee has been rescued by lifeboat crews after it got stuck.
Flint lifeboat volunteers were called out to the Airbus loading facility just outside Saltney at around 11.30am on Thursday after reports that the dolphin had become stuck on the sandbanks.
Initially nicknamed Dave by the rescue team but later called Davina after it emerged that it was a female, the dolphin was put on to a stretcher and transported by lifeboat to the open waters of the North Rhyl Flats where it was released.
The size and weight of the young dolphin meant that a bigger lifeboat from and crew from Rhyl Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) had to be drafted in to help move her.
The confused creature had already made a name for itself earlier this week when it was spotted by several people around Connah’s Quay in Flintshire on Monday. Later it was sighted near Chester racecourse, where people tweeted pictures of the dolphin breaching from the water.
Marine wildlife experts say the mammal would normally be found in the deep waters of the Bay of Biscay and think it may have been chasing fish when it strayed up the river and couldn’t find its way back.
Watch the rescue operation take place below...