Photo: SWNS (2)
A fishing boat skipper was shocked to find a young deer half a mile out to sea recently but knew he had to help the lost animal aboard and back to shore.
Mark Bowditch, 56, was on a mackerel fishing charter off the coast of Weymouth, England, when he spotted the animal paddling in water more than 160 feet deep.
“Initially, I just thought it was a basking shark swimming slowly across the surface,” he said. “Then when I got a little bit closer, and it turned, I saw it had two ears!”
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“We got the mackerel lines in so it wouldn’t get caught and then made a sort of lasso to catch it with,” he said. “The current was going out, so it probably got caught in the tide and pulled out into the deep water.”
“If we hadn’t come across it, it would probably have just drowned,” Bowditch added.
Deer are strong swimmers who often cross large rivers or parts of the sea to get past large roads or towns such as Weymouth.
“I’ve heard about deer swimming across Weymouth harbor before from other skippers, but I’ve never seen any,” Bowditch said of the incident.
Bowditch, whose charter service is based on the pontoons in Weymouth near Bennett’s chip shop, contacted harbor officials shortly after hauling the deer onto his boat. The officials helped the skipper unload the deer and release it near Nothe Gardens.
source: people.com
