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Caught on camera: Surfer rescues deer caught in ocean off Belmar coast

Witnesses say a deer was stuck on the jetty off the Belmar beach Sunday morning.

Naomi Yané

Oct 2, 2023, 9:09 PM

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A deer was rescued from the rough waters of Belmar by a surfer - and it was captured on camera.

Adrienne Tully is an amateur photographer who just started taking pictures again earlier this year. She says she never expected to snap these pictures and this video of a deer caught in the waters of Belmar but that’s exactly what she captured Sunday morning.

"From a distance, I thought it was a bird and then I noticed it was a deer and that’s when I broke the camera out and I was taking a lot of pictures of him,” Tully says.

Sometime around 7 a.m. while she was on the beach waiting to take pictures of the sunrise, she noticed a crowd starting to form on the beach around 15th Avenue. Tully's video and pictures show the moments that deer made its way onto the jetty.

"He was swimming through the ocean and then he decided a couple of times to climb on the jetty and then he went back in the water, and we were a little worried,” she says.

There was a buck struggling to climb out of the water and onto the jetty. The deer finally got an assist.

"There was a nice surfer, I don’t know his name, but he eventually tried to guide the deer out. The deer came out and then just ran north on the beach, you know, far away from any people and I’m sure he’s fine,” says Tully.

Surfer Philip Nelan said the deer probably got lost and ended up in the ocean and it was a good thing the surfer came by when he did.

"Whoever that surfer was, it was good on him to actually save it from drowning in the ocean because yesterday it was pretty turbulent in the water,” says Nelan.

News 12 New Jersey is hoping viewers recognize the heroic surfer so that he can get the recognition he deserves.

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