A dolphin frolicked with swimmers in a 'once of a lifetime' moment at a harbour,.
Tourists and locals were enjoying the last sunlight on a warm day in a Cornish port town when the mammal stuck its head above water.
Helen Williams, left to get some chips for her family and had been waiting for around half an hour when she received a phone call saying a dolphin had arrived.
“I didn’t believe them at first,” Ms Williams said, “and I thought, well, I had waited long enough for these chips, so I didn’t move from the queue.”
To Ms Williams’ and many other people’s, surprise, it was no wind-up.
The dolphin, known locally as Nick, had entered Hayle Harbour, Cornwall, just before 7pm and joined around 20 people in the water.
Amazing footage taken by Ms Williams, as well as others, shows Nick the friendly dolphin swimming right up to the people in the water.
The swimmers and paddleboarders were in the harbour when the dolphin arrived and it did not seem to be shy whatsoever.
It jumped around, splashed people and waved its tail at the swimmers, who laughed and shouted as it happened.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Ms Williams said, having videoed the dolphin swimming as her nieces and nephews were in the water. “The kids quite often go jumping into the harbour. I’ve never seen a dolphin in the harbour before. It was just incredible.
“It almost looks Photoshopped.”
She added that the dolphin approached the humans in the water - not the other way around - and local marine wildlife experts arrived to check on its welfare.
Nick was at first suspected of having a zip tie caught on his face.
But he was checked by the coastguard and what was thought to be plastic pollution was, instead, a white scar - which helped identify him.
Antony Silcock, who was also watching from dry land, said he wished he had a wetsuit so he could have joined in.
“I went out fishing with my friend John,” he said, “and I’d just been lucky enough to bring in a flounder. Just as I was about to cast it off from the quayside, this huge black thing came up to breathe. It caught me quite by surprise.
“I realised very quickly that it was an absolutely beautiful dolphin.”
Antony said the dolphin kept swimming around and returning to the swimmers.
He continued: “One of the guys who had been in the water before everyone realised there was a dolphin around had quite a scare.
“He had felt something nudging him from below so put his head under to have a look. He said that he was literally looking into the face of the dolphin. It scared him half to death at the time.
“It seems it just wanted to play. It was a perfect end to a perfect day for me.”
He had visited the area for just a day and added: “How lucky am I to have been in Hayle to see this? It was so special. The only time I’ve seen dolphins in the wild was in Costa Rica on a boat trip.
“I was amongst a pod of hundreds but they were half the size of the dolphin I saw today. It was a truly precious experience.”
Marine wildlife experts suggest that if a dolphin, or other similar sea creature, is in the water nearby to you - you should not approach it.
