goes on for the father Gibbs and adult female Dolber.

Chris Heslop of Dolphin Quest said jubilant onlookers and staff had greeted the return of the first two of the four missing mammals but explained the capture had taken two days to complete.

He said: "We got a call from a tug captain in the Oil Dock, Ferry Reach, at 9 a.m. on Saturday saying he had spotted the mum and calf.

"When we got there Cirrus immediately started interacting with the trainer Dave Gossman. We started feeding her and she had 15 pounds of fish.

"She started following the boat as she is trained to do and we led her all the way to Tynes Bay, near the incinerator, which is about 10 miles.

"But she started to lose interest in us which is quite normal and we lost contact.'' "We didn't expect to get her in that day but she was happy to see the boat and her trainer and we could see she was in great health.'' "At 8 a.m. the next day we got a call from a fisherman saying that she was one and a half miles off Daniel's Head and we got there within 20 minutes.

"A trainer was able to interact with her, looking her in the face and stroking her.'' He explained that trained dolphins respond to visual signals, voice commands and whistle blasts and touching.

"It took us about two and a half hours to get her back via South Shore to the Southampton Princess. She's circumnavigated the island.

"There was a lot of jubilation - there were spectators on the hill and hotel guests who could see what was going on.'' He explained that patience was needed to get dolphins to return and that they were still confident of getting the other two.

Last week male adult Gibbs had been fed several times in the open waters but Dolphin Quest say this is just the first stage in re-establishing contact.

Mr. Heslop said: "Gibbs has been similar to the way Cirrus was on Saturday -- once they have been fed they just want to play.'' He said there had been numerous sightings as boaters across the Island joined the weekend search. "The public have been absolutely great. We signed up about 15 boats but many more called with sightings.'' There were several Dolphin spottings off Fort St. Catherine yesterday. Mr.

Heslop said: "We've had conflicting reports. Some have said it was just one, others said it was more. The search continues.'' He explained Dolphin Quest had several false alarms in their weekend blitz.

"Sometimes people see clumps of seaweed and debris. One sighting turned out to be a barrel but because it was appearing only after every fourth wave it looked like a dolphin surfacing for air.

"I'd like to thank the Department of Fisheries who lent us three of their boats.'' Despite the public interest in their missing baby dolphin, it has yet to be named.

Mr. Heslop said: "We've had some good suggestions such as Gert, Lucky and Stormy but we are going to wait and have a competition to name it next month.'' If you spot a dolphin call 239 6957 with the time and location.