Howell Teens Rescue Fawn From Barnegat Bay

TOMS RIVER, NJ — At first glance, they thought it was just a log being carried by the currents on Barnegat Bay. But then someone realized it wasn't just floating along.

"Hey, is that a deer?"

The keen glance of Charlie Landry Sr. set Kyle Mulholland and Sean Ryan into action, and led to the rescue of the tiny fawn that had found itself trying to swim to safety on Saturday.

"It looked like a piece of wood floating," Kyle Mulholland, 18, said. He and Ryan, 17, were part of a group of people who were hanging out Saturday afternoon in Applegate Cove, which is on the southeast side of Cattus Island State Park off Fischer Boulevard. The group from Howell, which had a couple of boats tied up and a couple of wave runners, was just relaxing when Charlie Landry Sr. saw the fawn.

"It was far out," Kyle Mulholland said. And it was swimming hard.

"It was clearly struggling," said John Spalthoff, who was headed out for dinner on his boat with friends when the fawn was spotted. Spalthoff, who's the Spring Lake Heights schools superintendent, paddled out to the fawn on his kayak. At the same time Mulholland and Ryan boarded one of the waverunners and drove out to rescue the deer.

Spalthoff said he tried to pick the fawn up onto the kayak, but the squirming creature went back into the water. So Mulholland jumped in the water, which was about 70 degrees, to help the deer.

"She was so tired from swimming she didn’t have much time left," said Bill Ryan, Sean's father, who captured a clip of the rescue on video.

The water was just deep enough that Mulholland couldn't touch bottom, so he grabbed the fawn and handed it to Sean then climbed back on the wave runner and held the fawn while Sean drove. The fawn was cold and tired from its ordeal, so they grabbed a towel from the boat to warm it up.

"We wrapped him in a towel and dried him off," Mulholland said, then released it on land. After it rested for a few minutes, it headed off into the woods, he said.

"It was a great save," Spalthoff said. "It’s the true definition of boaters working together to enjoy their time on the water."

"I'm glad we saw him and didn't just think it was a piece of wood," Mulholland said.

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