First

Lifoat volunteers rescued two dolphins washed ashore during the low tide in Frasenburgh Beach, Scotland, on June 5. Beachgoers found the marine animals stranded along the shore at around 6 am and called the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and the Coastguard for help. The rescue wor…

When members of the marine mammal team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare rush to a Cape Cod beach to help a stranded dolphin or porpoise, they have no choice but to treat the endangered animal on site and then immediately release it.

That is about to change.

The organization, which protects animals worldwide, is opening a first-of-its-kind short-term dolphin hospital on Cape Cod this month that it hopes will not only improve survivability rates, but also enhance the research it has developed over 25 years.

An International Fund for Animal Welfare team carries a stranded common dolphin to a waiting vehicle on Jan. 19, 2012, while another waits to be rescued at Herring River in Wellfleet, Mass. The organization that protects animals worldwide is opening a first-of-its-kind dolphin hospital on Cape Cod in August 2023 that will not only improve survivability rates but also enhance the groundbreaking response techniques that it has developed over 25 years.

Stranded marine mammals are stressed, in shock and dehydrated, said Brian Sharp, director of the rescue team. Simply caring for them at the scene is often not enough. They need additional diagnostics, treatment and recovery time.

“With this ICU for dolphins, we’ll be able to get them treatment that's needed, then be able to release them quickly,” he said.

While there are marine mammal rehabilitation centers that can take care of animals for months or even years, the goal of this facility is to release them back into the ocean within four days, he said.

“This is the first time that this has been attempted before," Sharp said.

There are more live marine mammal strandings on Cape Cod than anywhere else in the world, Sharp said. The welfare fund has responded to more than 400 live stranded dolphins, whales and porpoises in the region in the past five years alone, the organization said in a news release.

Cape Cod is a good habitat for dolphins, but a risky one. Its geography — it is basically a hook-shaped spit of sand jutting into the ocean — can make dolphin navigation difficult, and 12-foot tides can quickly expose a mile of beach.

A dead common dolphin is marked Jan. 19, 2012, at Herring River in Wellfleet, Mass.

The 4,200-square-foot Dolphin Rescue Center is in a renovated retail space in downtown Orleans.

It includes an 1,800-square-foot rehabilitation area with two treatment pools 15 feet across and a veterinary laboratory. The public will not be permitted to have direct contact with the animals being a cared for, but there is also an education center where visitors will be able to watch the recovering animals on a monitor.

Staffed by four full-time workers, it is equipped to provide round-the-clock care. It will start by treating one animal at a time, but the goal is to eventually treat multiple animals simultaneously.

The privately funded center has been federally inspected and expects to open by the end of the month, Sharp said.

“We want to take what we learn here and share it nationally, internationally,” he said.

Diver Everton Simpson carries pieces of staghorn coral from a nursery to be planted inside the White River Fish Sanctuary Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. One day, Simpson and the other Jamaicans doing this work hope, the coral and fish will fully return and match the beauty of the water above. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Nicholas Bingham uses an underwater flashlight to spearfish at night, which is banned, under a moonlit sky, in Stewart Town, Jamaica, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019. It's impossible for them to see anything but what's illuminated right in front of them, and the distant lights from land gauge how far out they've swum. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Diver Everton Simpson reaches to tie lines of staghorn coral growing at a coral nursery inside the White River Fish Sanctuary Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Simpson kicks up some sand as he harvests some of the precious crop to be transplanted in a protected area. The current propels him back and forth, making the delicate process seem akin to trying to thread a needle on a roller coaster. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Fish swim past planted staghorn coral inside the the White River Fish Sanctuary Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. At White River Fish Sanctuary, which is only about 2 years old, the clearest proof of early success is the return of tropical fish that inhabit the reefs, as well as hungry pelicans, skimming the surface of the water to feed on them. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Diver Lenford DaCosta cleans up lines of staghorn coral at an underwater coral nursery inside the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Oracabessa, Jamaica. With fish and coral, it's a codependent relationship. The fish rely upon the reef structure to evade danger and lay eggs, and they also eat up the coral's rivals. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Diver Lenford DaCosta tends to lines of staghorn coral growing at an underwater nursery inside the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Oracabessa, Jamaica. On the ocean floor, small coral fragments dangle from suspended ropes, like socks hung on a laundry line. DaCosta and other divers tend to these underwater nurseries much as a terrestrial gardener minds a flower bed, plucking off snails and fireworms that feast on immature coral. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Divers, from left, Ray Taylor, Everton Simpson and Andrew Todd gather coral from a coral nursery to be planted inside the White River Fish Sanctuary Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The tropical turquoise waters near the coast of Jamaica are beautiful and inviting, but they disguise the devastation that lurks beneath. But swim a little farther and pieces of regenerating staghorn coral appear, strung out on a line, waiting to be tied onto rocks in an effort to repair the damage done to reefs by man and nature. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Diver Everton Simpson plants staghorn coral harvested from a coral nursery inside the the White River Fish Sanctuary Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The energetic 68-year-old has reinvented himself several times, but always made a living from the ocean. Once a spear fisherman and later a scuba-diving instructor, Simpson started working as a "coral gardener" two years ago, part of grassroots efforts to bring Jamaica's coral reefs back from the brink. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Divers Everton Simpson, right, and Andrew Todd bring staghorn coral from a coral nursery to be planted inside the White River Fish Sanctuary Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. When each stub grows to about the size of a human hand, Simpson collects them in a crate to individually "transplant" onto a reef, a process akin to planting each blade of grass in a lawn separately. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Staghorn coral grows on lines at a coral nursery inside the White River Fish Sanctuary Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Just 2 percent of the ocean floor is filled with coral, but the branching structures, shaped like everything from reindeer antlers to human brains, sustain a quarter of all marine species. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Everton Simpson, right, sits on a boat in-between dives on the White River Fish Sanctuary with Mark Lobban, left, Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. More than a dozen grassroots-run fish sanctuaries and coral nurseries have sprung up on the island in the past decade. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Diver Everton Simpson plants staghorn harvested from a coral nursery inside the the White River Fish Sanctuary Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Simpson uses bits of fishing line to tie clusters of staghorn coral onto rocky outcroppings, a temporary binding until the coral's limestone skeleton grows and fixes itself onto the rock. The goal is to jumpstart the natural growth of a coral reef. And so far, it's working. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Diver Everton Simpson removes snails from staghorn coral planted inside the White River Fish Sanctuary Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The years of care that Simpson has devoted to trying to bring back Jamaica's coral reefs are shown by the cuts on his hands as he painstakingly works to transplant the new coral. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Diver Lenford DaCosta cleans up lines of staghorn coral at a nursery inside the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, in Oracabessa, Jamaica. After a series of natural and man-made disasters in the 1980s and 1990s, Jamaica lost 85 percent of its once-bountiful coral reefs. But today, the corals and tropical fish are slowly reappearing, thanks in part to a series of careful interventions. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

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Lifoat volunteers rescued two dolphins washed ashore during the low tide in Frasenburgh Beach, Scotland, on June 5. Beachgoers found the marin…