Two-year-old Madeline Dahl would tell anyone that she doesn’t go anywhere without “Baby,” her beloved stuffed toy.
Anywhere included the New England Aquarium, which was where she had ventured with her family earlier in the week.
Unfortunately, during the trip, Baby took a fall and splashed into the aquarium’s Great Ocean tank, Madeline’s dad, Eric Dahl, said.
“So I was holding her over to see the turtles. And that’s when I realized she was holding Baby. And so I went to go grab Baby,” Dahl said. “And she dropped her. My heart just stopped. And there were maybe 70 people up there — and there was a collective gasp.
The turtles below in the tank, Myrtle and Carolina, were smart enough to realize that Baby was not food, but family pandemonium still broke out.
“Once the kids realized what had happened, they were inconsolable. Just inconsolable,” Dahl said. “They were so loud. Screaming, crying. Both of them.”
While Dahl tried to calm his kids down, what he didn’t know was that the Aquarium team had already sprung into action, as the incident was hardly their first turtle tank rescue.
“Somebody actually dropped their wedding ring into the tank a couple of years ago,” said tank diver Dan Denaro.

“Carolina was going on her merry way. It just happened to be in the direction of the dive platform, where we were able to get the doll back,” Dahl said. “So we just reached on down and grabbed it, and then we have someone disinfecting stuff in the back of the house that we left it in to soak about an hour. Honestly, that doll was cleaner when we were done with it than before it hit the water.”
The Dahls said they could not be more grateful.
“They fished it out. They sanitized it. They came over and gave it to her, and Madeline was ecstatic,” Dahl said.
“It’s always amazing to see those smiles at the end of it,” Denaro said.
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