A heart-wrenching drama is playing out in the coves of Conception Bay with a number of dolphins trapped in heavy pack ice.

Four or five of the mammals have already expired.

Unlike last week in Heart’s Delight-Islington where people were able to rescue some of the dolphins, ice conditions are preventing rescuers from helping them.

Everett Sacrey, a member of the Whale Release and Strandings Group, says they could venture out into Trinity Bay last weekend because it was slob ice, not the heavier ice field which has choked Conception Bay.

He says the mammals’ struggles will continue until they get some help from Mother Nature, preferably through southerly or southwesterly winds.