Dolphins Swim Alongside Swimmer To Protect Him From Great White Shark! [Video]

British long-distance swimmer Adam Walker found his love for dolphins elevated to the next level when he encountered a pod of ten dolphins who accompanied him, swimming aside him for over an hour – probably saving him from a Great White Shark that was seen in the vicinity. According to Yahoo News, the dolphins came out of nowhere soon after Adam found a 6-meter shark swimming below him.

The incident happened in New Zealand’s Cook Strait where Adam was swimming a 16 mile stretch in order to be a part of the Oceans Seven Mission. While Adam was not expecting to encounter any sharks in his long distance endeavor, he was worried for a brief period of time when he saw the ominous shadow lurking in the waters below him. And then, miracle happened!

A pod of ten dolphins came from nowhere and surrounded Adam. They swam very close to him and formed somewhat of a ring around him and stayed put. Adam in the meantime was struggling to complete his swim in the mildly choppy waters and the dolphins simply swam next to him slowly, matching his strokes. There were brief moments when they even came close enough to brush one of their tails on Adam.

The dolphins stayed with him for well over an hour and after ensuring that the shark was nowhere in the vicinity, left him to complete his swim which he eventually did in about 8 hours and 36 minutes. Meanwhile video footage of the dolphins swimming next to him was recorded by Adam’s crew accompanying him on a raft. This was uploaded to YouTube and has since then went viral. It was uploaded on April 23 and has already hit over 400,000 views.

Oceans Seven mission requires a swimmer to complete seven long distance swim sites across the world to earn the tag. Adam hopes to be the second person on the planet to achieve the feat. Incidentally, Adam was also working to raise funds for a non-profit organization – Stop Whaling, which focuses on the conservation of whales and dolphins. His efforts to save these intelligent marine mammals seems to have been graciously repaid by the dolphins.

Stories of dolphins saving people from sharks and danger have been reported since time immemorial. Even though these intelligent animals have been harmed in more ways than one by the human race, they seem to have some kind of special affinity to human beings and continue to protect us from harm.

Do you think this pod of dolphins were indeed trying to protect the swimmer?

[Image via Bing]