3 oyster workers rescue a porpoise

Pat Sullivan held the rescued porpoise before releasing it to sea.Francis Sullivan

While working to pull oyster cages from the mud flats in Duxbury Bay late Friday morning, Chris Sullivan, his older brother, and two friends did something unexpected: They rescued a young porpoise.

The four young men, all Duxbury natives working for the Old Cove Oyster Co. for the summer while off from college, got their boat stuck in the mud at low tide near the channel opening at Shipyard Lane. While continuing to pull up cages, Sullivan's older brother Pat noticed a fin sticking out of the mud roughly 100 feet from the boat.

Pat Sullivan, 22, approached the animal stuck in the mud and noticed it had a blowhole. He thought it was a baby dolphin.

"You see fish get stuck sometimes, but nothing like this," said Chris Sullivan, 20.

Not sure what to do, they contacted Battelle, a scientific research lab with an office in Duxbury, which often fields calls from people who encounter animals in the bay, Battelle spokeswoman Katy Delaney said. The receptionist gave them the number for the New England Aquarium Emergency Rescue Line.

Not getting answers fast enough, the men then called the Duxbury Police Department, which connected them to the harbormaster. Because of low tide, the harbormaster could not get directly to the men, but walked them through what to do, Sullivan said.

The harbormaster told them they could scoop the animal out of the mud and put it back into the channel, Sullivan said. He also said the animal was a porpoise, not a dolphin, ­because of its circular nose.

The Sullivans — with ­Hunter O'Brien and Spencer Ash, both 21 — pulled the porpoise from the mud, carried it to the water, and slipped it back into the bay.

"Once we let it go, it swam 10 feet out and then came back toward us, like it was saying 'Thank you,' " before swimming back out to sea, Chris Sullivan said.