Dolphin Dies in Arms of Lifeguard : Marine life: Several attempts to rescue disoriented mammal off Hermosa Beach fail.

A young stray dolphin--described by a biologist as the “equivalent of a teen-ager in human terms”--died in the arms of a Hermosa Beach lifeguard early Friday morning after beaching itself and defying three attempts to save its life, authorities said.

Marine biologists said the four-foot-long dolphin, discovered floundering in a few inches of surf, was suffering from a major infestation of brain parasites that apparently had affected its equilibrium and kept it from eating for several days.

Andy Thieme, the 28-year-old lifeguard who tried in vain to save the animal, said the dolphin had seemed lively when he came to its assistance at around 7 a.m. on the 8th Street beach.

“It was a beautiful, beautiful animal,” Thieme said. “It was just a small, little guy.”

The mammal--a so-called “common dolphin” whose normal habitat is several miles out to sea--was first spotted by Larry Carstensen, a beach maintenance supervisor, as he cruised the shoreline shortly after dawn. Carstensen said he could see its dark, shiny back in a cloud of sea spray at the water’s edge.

“As the waves would recede, you could see it stranded there, trying to swim back,” Carstensen said. As he radioed for help, he said, a jogger also noticed the dolphin, waded in and pushed it out past the surf line. Believing the creature was safe, Carstensen left.

Within minutes, Thieme’s supervisor called him on the radio to say the dolphin had beached itself again.

“It was breathing in water as the waves were breaking over its blowhole,” Thieme said. “And there was sand in its mouth, as if it had bumped the bottom.”

Thieme, a five-year lifeguard who works winters as a fisherman and who has rescued dolphins trapped in gill nets, said he enlisted a surfer and again guided the mammal back out to apparent safety. The dolphin swam in circles, the lifeguard said, and within 10 minutes it needed to be rescued again.

“I swam all the way out past the surf line with it,” Thieme said, adding that he had intended to hold it there until a crew of marine veterinarians could be sent from the California Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

“But this time, it just took off,” he said. “I thought, ‘Great!’ Then all of a sudden, it just stopped and rolled on its side, belly up.

“I swam out to it, and tried to swim it around, moving it back and forth to see if it would breathe again. I kept petting it, trying to reassure it and tell it it was going to be OK. But it had a kind of glazed look in its eye, and that was it. It was dead.”

Marine biologist John Heyning of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History’s marine mammal program said the dolphin, a young male that would be “the equivalent of a teen-ager in human terms,” had apparently been wandering without food for several days as the result of an infestation of flatworms around its ears. The parasites are found in most wild animals, but can sometimes get out of control and affect the host mammal’s brain, he said.

Thieme said the dolphin was the youngest he has seen in a lifetime of working and playing on the beaches of the South Bay.

“My whole life has been on the oceans, and I love dolphins,” he said. “I was real saddened by this.”