Deer found at sea {edited, found the story}

John Y Cannuck

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http://www.hemmy.net/2007/10/21/lost-deer-caught-in-the-sea/

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A deer was caught swimming 1.5 miles offshore desperately trying to keep afloat and these guys, Chad Campbell and Bo Warren brought it into their boat. Clearly it was too exhausted and tied by the legs in fear of of the deer kicking and escaping. They got back to the shore and released it but it was quivering and not able to walk or stand. The deer was left sitting but its chances of survival was definitely greater than when it was found at sea.

5 more pics of deer caught in the sea after the jump.

Source: Magical Mountain
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From The Maryland Gazette:

The catching was slow and they looked back to check their lines. They saw what appeared to be a seal with its snout out of the water, but they didn't think any seals were around their fishing grounds and they kept watching.

Soon they realized it was a deer trying desperately to keep afloat — and obviously losing the battle. Fearing the whitetail would get snagged in their lines they cranked in their rigs. Then the deer headed straight for the boat possibly thinking it was a spit of land.

But as it got closer and saw the two fishermen aboard, it had second thoughts. With its nose barely out of the water, it appeared to have been swimming all night, said Campbell. "Since the fish weren't biting, we thought we'd give it a hand. Bo grew up around cows, was really handy with a bow line and lasooed the deer on the first attempt."

They got it close, Bo grabbed the neck, Chad got a good hold on a flank and "we barreled over backwards to the deck -- and before we knew it, Bo was on top of the buck in velvet and had him hog tied like a calf."

Chad, said they feared the deer was going to "kick the hell out of us in a 22-foot center console boat," but they were lucky, it was too exhausted to resist, "We hit the gas and ran him to the closest beach, Kent Point, where I beached the boat and we carefully unloaded our catch on the sand. We untied him and jumped back.

"Too weak to stand, he just sat there quivering. We picked him up again and put his feet underneath him, but he still couldn't walk or stand. We left him sitting there looking at us. Before we left, I looked him in the eye and said 'See you on opening day; payback time.'

"We don't know whether he made it or not, but we do know his chances were vastly improved for survival than when we first saw him."

Source: Burton, Bill. "Oh Deer, What a Fishing Expedition on Bay."
Maryland Gazette; June 13th, 2007.
 
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Anyone have an idea as to why a deer would be out that far? I'm not a tree hugger, but I hate to see an animal in distress. Good to seee they helped out. Many people these days do nothing.
 
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I find em washed up dead on the Beach all the time on the B.C Coast.
Recently we found a buck black tail with a nice Rack in ex condition.

They try and swim to the other islands in the area only to Drown then wash up on the beach when they tucker out.

They dont all drown but rough seas drowns quite a few!
 
Not my experience at all. I've seen them swimming in heavy chop and even swell crossing outer Quatsino sound. The reason that the deer was near done is that buddy chased it and caught it IMO....
 
It's amazing that deer swim out to some rather barren isolated islands around here, crossing some nasty tide rips. I imagine some don't make it.
 
Happens here on the coast. Wolves or dogs chase 'em into the water. They cross inlets and channels. Of course cougars and grizzly bears do too.

I hunted on a guy's farm on Vancouver Island this year where he shot a grizzly harassing his livestock two years ago.

Went to work one morning and there was one on the log boom in Port Hardy.
Saw one on a tiny little island at the mouth of Smith Inlet one time.
 
what kind of idiot drags a live deer into a small boat????! They were lucky to have gotten out of it with no broken limbs or disabled boat. Would'nt it have made more sense to tow it ashore?
 
what kind of idiot drags a live deer into a small boat????! They were lucky to have gotten out of it with no broken limbs or disabled boat. Would'nt it have made more sense to tow it ashore?

I agree david. Although the best plan would have been to leave it alone IMO! Deer can swim a long ways and quite well thank you very much...

As an aside there's quite a few small islands on the coast that have deer but no preditors. :cool: Mind you all it would take is for a wolf or cougar or two to swim to said island and things would change real quick!

At our previous house, about 5 years ago, I was sitting on the deck and something caught my eye accross the bay. Checked it out with the binocs and it was a doe swimming towards me. Now that my attention was up I started to hear wolves houling across tha bay. (I had seen one the day before nearby too). I watched her for about a half an hour slowly making her way ~2kms.

Anyways she made it and landed not 200 ft from me! As she got out of the water I was pretty sure she was pregnant to boot! She snuck into the brush in a vacant lot next door and rested up. She stayed nearby all summer. I saw her several times and sign all over my yard after that. She raised hell with the neighbour's garden big time. :D She had two fawns that spring which turned out to be a doe and a buck.

Fast forward to today and Coal Harbour now has several 'town deer' that don't leave including her first lil buck which was a big two point the last time I saw him last summer. There's been at least two more batches of fawns since the first doe showed up as near as I could tell. I guess they figured out eating tulips and apples all night works quite well in town as long as you sleep/hide during the day. And the wolves don't bother ya. nice work if you can get ....:D
 
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Deer are actually excellent swimmers and often cross lakes,rivers etc. to escape predators or simply "to get to the other side".Here on the Fundy coast there are a lot of small islands with heavy cover,ample browse and often no predators that deer routinely swim to and take up temporary or even permanent residence.It's not unusual for them to swim a few miles or more to get where they are going.Many Fundy Bay fisherman have witnessed deer "lost at sea" which is easily imaginable as they undoubtably must get swept away at times by the highest/strongest tides in the world.
 
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