Q: What do you get when you cross Flipper with Jaws?
A: A fish that will bite you in half then save you from drowning.

But seriously folks, as a follow up to my Surfing With Jaws story, I would like to retell the events which happened at a local beach (about 45 minute’s drive from here) in 2004.

Four people were doing lifeguard training about 100 metres off Ocean Beach, Whangarei when they were menaced by a 3 metre great white. Frightening stuff indeed (I wonder if it was the same shark that menaced me?

Incredibly, a pod of dolphins came to their rescue and surrounded them until they could get to safety. The dolphins ‘herded’ the swimmers to shore, continuously swimming tight circles around them and slapping the water with their tails to scare the predator away, which at times was only a couple of metres from them. The ordeal lasted a lenghty 40 minutes and the group were in no doubt that the dolphins were trying to protect them.

It sounds almost too good to be true doesn’t? Lovable Flipper and his friends protecting man from certain death by Jaws… At the time it made global headlines. What is more startling, is that it isn’t the only time this senario has played out.

In November 2007, Surfer Todd Endris was badly mauled (sharks maul?), by a 12-15 foot shark and was in desperate need of a miracle. I wonder if he prayed, because miraculously a pod of dolphins surrounded him and safely got him to shore, where he was air-lifted to hospital (read the story here).

I have always had a bad attitude towards dolphins. Mainly due to the fact that so many people love them more than unborn children. I guess it’s not the dolphins fault that mankind is so badly misguided.

So in conclusion, I say hooray for Flipper… shark repeller!