It appears most of the dolphins trapped along the shoreline in Trinity Bay ice on Friday may have found a path to safety.

About 15 of the white-beaked mammals were first spotted in trouble on Friday morning off Heart’s Delight-Islington.

Residents, assisted by the local fire department and DFO., quickly sprang into action, moving some from one side of the harbour to the other.

Wayne Ledwell, with the Whale Release and Strandings Group, was also on the scene, and described the effort to move three of the dolphins to open water a little farther away.

He says they were stabilized in the water before someone suggested using a snowmobile sled, used for hauling wood, to hoist them into the back of a truck. They were then driven to nearby Whiteway where the process was reversed on the slipway, and they were released again into ice-free water.

It’s believed two or three in the original pod may have perished as they were forced closer to shore by the jagged ice.

Ledwell says others were spotted moving through a path to open water this morning, but he notes they’ll still have to deal with heavy pack ice further offshore.

White-beaked dolphins are common in Newfoundland waters.

A similar situation involving a half dozen of the creatures unfolded in the same area in 2018, with a successful rescue operation that took days to complete.