Dolphins protect swimmer from shark attack

The sharks kept their distance when Former Huthwaite swimmer Adam Walker got up close and personal with a group of dolphins during a gruelling ocean challenge.

Adam had just started a marathon swim across the Cook Strait, New Zealand when the pod of dolphins, which have been known to protect people from sharks ‘adopted him’.

He said: “I soon realised though that whatever pace I was at they would just nudge ahead like they were my training partners driving me on.”

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Adam said he looked down and spotted a shark swimming beneath him, but it didn’t attack.

He said: “I wonder if it was to protect me from the shark. I’d like to think that this was the reason as I certainly did feel protected. It was a real privilege.”

The dolphins spent an hour alongside him .

The Cook Strait was his sixth successful long distance swim in the Ocean 7 Challenge.

Adam is just one more mammoth swim away from becoming the first Brit to complete the Ocean 7 challenge a set of long distance swims scattered across the globe - and just the second in the World to have successfully completed them on the first attempt.

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So far, he has conquered six of the seven swims, the English Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Molokai Channel, Catalina Channel, Tsugaru Channel and the Cook Strait. His next challenge is the Irish Channel in August.

The former finance manager, who trained at Sutton in Ashfield pool and the Lammas Leisure Centre, now teaches open water swimming and is a motivational speaker.

As part of the challenge He is raising money for Whale and dolphin conservation.

He added: “I would like to think they were helping their pal to get through the swim.

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