200 Dolphins Surround Canadian Rescue Boats, Play In Their Wake

A pod of curious dolphins surrounded a rescue group doing a routine drill this week, giving the crew an experience that was anything but routine. Rescuers with the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue's West Vancouver station were performing their nightly training when they say about 200 dolphins surrounded their boats, bobbing in the surf and swimming under the boat.

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Ian Grantham, the captain of one of the boats, told the Vancouver Sun, "We were just out training like we do every night. Next thing we know, we go 'Hey look, there's a dolphin.' And then someone goes, 'Uh nope, looks like there's about 200 dolphins.'"

Grantham said he had never seen anything like it before.

"They were jumping in and out of the wake, flipping around, going under the boat, having a lot of fun," he said. "We see porpoises all the time, otters, the odd whale . . . (the dolphins) sort of change their direction as a group, like birds. It was really neat to see."

This isn't the only time dolphins (and whales) have been spied playing in the wake of boats. Check out this post for other stunning videos of the animals wake-surfing -- and for an explanation for why they do it.