How Moko the friendly dolphin saved whales

HELPING FLIPPER: Moko, whose legend has grown with the saving of two stranded whales, plays with a swimmer at Waikokopu Bay, Mahia, this summer.

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After an hour and a half of struggling in the cold ocean, Malcolm Smith was about to give up on trying to save two stranded pygmy sperm whales - then Moko the friendly dolphin showed up.

The young female bottle-nosed dolphin that has called Mahia Peninsula home for nearly a year somehow communicated with the distressed mother and calf and led them out to sea, said Mr Smith, field office supervisor at the Conservation Department's Wairoa office.

 "She communicated in some way with the two whales, escorted them along the beach and a right-angle turn into the channel, and we haven't seen the whales since.

"It is very hard to put a scientific explanation behind it all. I have never heard of anything like that happening anywhere in the world."

Whale expert Anton van Helden, collections manager for marine animals at Te Papa, called the incident "extraordinary and wonderful".

He agreed that some form of communication must have taken place, but did not believe that dolphins and whales shared language. It was fantastic that Mr Smith, an expert on the animals and on the area, had been able to document the Mahia Beach rescue, he said.

Mr Smith said he was able to turn the 250-kilogram mother and a year-old calf around because they had a little water under them, but they appeared disoriented and kept coming back.

"There's a sandbar offshore and it was probably upsetting their sonar ... The whales were quite distressed and weren't going anywhere."

The whales were on the surface but, when Moko arrived to take charge, all three animals submerged and swam out to sea. "It was quite decisive, the change in their attitude."

Moko knew the area well as she often came inshore to play with boats, surfboards and swimmers, he said.

But he and Mr van Helden warned people to be careful around the dolphin, which was still a wild animal. "She could do someone serious harm without meaning to," Mr van Helden said.