Bullied dolphin: Just saying those two words aloud fills me with some sort of bizarre, misplaced sadness. And, no, this isn’t some sort of publicity stunt for a new animated film from Dreamworks.

The next time someone is giving you a hard time about this, that, or the other, take some comfort in knowing that, out there somewhere in those vast oceanic waters, is a sad little dolphin who is experiencing the exact same set of emotions. If this isn’t the beginning to a worldwide best-selling children’s book, then I don’t know what is. I should probably consider purchasing the domain bullieddolphin.org as soon as possible. But, I digress.

A dolphin nicknamed Freddie has been hanging around the Huntington Beach area despite efforts from rescue crews to guide the little guy back into the open sea. Although there is plenty of food for the little guy to survive on, wildlife officials would love nothing more than to get Freddie out of the wetlands and back into the ocean where he belongs.

Unfortunately, human spectators along the shore are scaring the poor little guy from making the trip back into the sea. Authorities from the Department of Fish and Game have used paddle boards to help guide Freddie out of the wetlands, but on-lookers have sent him scrambling back into safer waters. Efforts have also been thwarted by a pod of dolphins that have, on occasion, chased Freddie away from the sea.

“There could be tension among the dolphin pod and dolphins can be very aggressive, even among themselves,” Peter Wallerstein of Marine Animal Rescue explained.

Freddie is one of seven dolphins that swam into the wetlands last week. Six of them have already returned to the sea.

Officials are asking for people to stay away from the area until the situation has been resolved. No sense causing the little guy more grief than he’s already experiencing. Twitter users have been smitten by the story’s cuteness factor. Let us know what you think about bullied dolphins in the comments section.