A British swimmer has recounted an incredible experience in which a pod of dolphins surrounded him in the water to protect him from a 6ft shark in New Zealand. Adam Walker had been hoping to fulfil his dream of swimming with dolphins in 2014 when he entered the open water.
The dolphins formed a circle around him, scaring off a great white shark that was heading towards him without Adam even being aware of the danger. The swimmer believes the dolphins saw the shark and rushed to protect him.
He has praised the animals for their intuition, saying they just “kept me safe on my open water swim”. Adam had been battling fierce waves, describing the dip as “like swimming in a washing machine”, before the dolphins appeared.
He had been told by a friend that there were no sharks in the area, which had previously proved to be spot on. Lurking in the depths of the Cook Strait was a 6ft beast, however. Adam had not even noticed the huge shark.
The swimmer revealed that he only became aware of the danger when he got back out of the water. He was grateful to the pod: “This swim will stay with me forever”. Dolphins rely on each other in the water for protection, particularly from shark attacks.
This is why they tend to stick together in pods. They are able to defend one another by using their large snout to prod the shark or by jabbing the predator’s underbelly or gills. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) organisation explains that “dolphins are able to protect vulnerable members of their pods and extended families such as young dolphins and injured or sick dolphins”.
The WDC adds that safety in numbers is the main advantage of dolphins when it comes to protecting themselves from predators such as sharks.
This is not the first time that dolphins have jumped in to protect humans from sharks. In 2007, surfer Todd Endris was saved by a pod of dolphins after being attacked by a great white in California. More recently, in 2019, a surfer in Australia was rescued from a shark by a pod of dolphins. It seems that dolphins not only have good hearts and are friendly towards humans, but that they also have a protective instinct.
