7 dolphins stranded in Wellfleet Harbor after tide went out. Rescuers leapt into action.

A mud-splattered team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, or IFAW, rescued dolphins trapped after the tide went out in Wellfleet Harbor Saturday.

Seven of the dolphins stranded on the morning low tide. Five were pulled from the muck alive and rehabbed before their release. Two were found dead.

To release the surviving dolphins, team members guided them down to the water's edge at Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown.

There are about 70 marine mammal strandings on Cape Cod per year, largely dolphins or porpoises, Brian Sharp, director of IFAW’s marine mammal rescue and research team told the Cape Cod Times last year.

The group opened a rescue center for the animals in Orleans last August.

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