A young dolphin had to be hauled from the pool at Dolphin Quest yesterday afternoon after suffering a suspected fractured jaw in a mysterious incident overnight.

Bermuda's first home-born dolphin, Somers, was found with the jaw injury early yesterday morning after trainers arrived at the Dockyard pool to give him his daily physical check over.

Emergency calls were made to Endsmeet Animal Hospital and to Dolphin Quest's marine veterinary surgeons in the US in order for suitable treatment to be administered at the soonest opportunity.

And after at first separating Somers from his seven companions in the pool, a team of 11 dolphin trainers and staff members finally managed to put him safely on a stretcher and haul the 300 pound mammal from the pool for treatment.

Staff at Dolphin Quest said Somers was obviously in some discomfort and pain, but was coping well and was expected to make a full recovery.

Vet Nick Glynn, liasing by telephone with marine vets in the US, x-rayed the dolphin's snout and managed to secure the jaw with a bandage until further assessments were done.

After about an hour of treatment at the side of the pool, during which time attendants constantly watered down the animal, they began the mission of placing Somers, who also had two broken teeth, back in the pool.

Michelle Campbell, director of animal management at the pool, said at only three years old, Somers was a very fit and robust dolphin who was likely to cope with the injury as well as possible.

She said: "We arrived at 7 a.m. this morning and were giving the dolphins their usual check-ups and feeds when we noticed Somers had injured himself. It must have happened between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. today.

"We have no idea how it happened, but we have security cameras, so we will be going through those to see if we can find out. However, it may have happened under the water, so we may never know.

"But, he is only three-years-old and dolphins are like children in a playground - they injure themselves."

Mrs. Campbell said the jaw was stabilised, and if it was found to be fractured, it could take up to two months to heal properly.

She added: "This could easily have happened during play. Dolphins are social creatures and it's normal for them to interact. They can be boisterous with each other.

"Somers is coping well. He's a juvenile animal and is quite resilient, and he has continued to eat well today, which is a very good sign.

Yesterday, after Somers was placed back in a segregated part of the pool, his favourite trainer Katie Rice joined him to offer comfort.

She said: "He seems fine. He keeps coming up to be cuddled, which is a good sign."

Dolphin Quest looks unlikely to move back to its old home at the Southampton Princess any time soon as renovation work has still not got underway.

General manager of Dolphin Quest Christine Mihelcic said the company was now exploring other options, including the possibility of making Dockyard its permanent home.

She said it was two and a half years since Hurricane Gert damaged the Dolphin Quest facility at the Southampton Princess on South Shore, but no repair work had been carried out.

Dolphin Quest has eight Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins. When the enclosure was damaged in 1999, four dolphins were accidentally freed, and only two were found. It is believed the other two went on to become wild creatures of the sea.