Dolphins Save Man Attacked by Shark in Egypt

A man was attacked by a shark while swimming in the Red Sea in Egypt. Thanks to a group of dolphins, his life was saved.

A report on Live Science said Martin Richardson was in the middle of the sea when he was bitten at least five times by a mako shark. In his mind, he was near to death as he believed there was no reason for the wild animal to stop.

"I had lost approximately 5 pints [2.8 liters] of blood. You only have 8 to 9 [pints, or 4.5 to 5 L] in your body. I was waiting for a feeding frenzy... I knew it was circling me... I turned away and looked at the mountains. I gave up," Richardson was quoted in the report.

Richardson recalled that the attack fortunately stopped when a group of dolphins appeared.

He firmly believed that the dolphins saved his life from the shark.

When the attack stopped, Richardson was immediately pulled onto the boat that was trying to catch and save him from the shark. He was then brought to the hospital wherein he was given more than 300 stitches.

Dolphins protecting their community

Marine biologist Tom Hird said in the report that "Being saved by another animal is certainly a very romantic notion."

However, there were also doubts on whether the dolphins were really trying to save the human of they were trying to protect themselves from imminent danger.

A report on Daily Star quoted Professor Mike Heithaus of the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University saying that if the dolphins had their young, they might have suspected the shark was looking to attack their babies, therefore they opted to go on the offensive.

Heithaus mentioned that there were a lot of cases wherein it seemed that dolphins and even whales were protecting humans, but in most cases, this was not actually the case.

"The dolphins see a big cloud of blood, they know a shark is in the area," Heithaus said in the report. "They may not have been trying to save Martin."

Previous incident

An Inside Hook report echoed that this action of dolphins could be less out of altruism and more to protect their own lives.

In other words, saving a human life might only a "side effect" because the dolphins were really out in the sea to protect their own community, according to the report.

One of the similar incidents that was reported before was when British swimmer Adam Walker was completing his 16-mile challenge swim across the Cook Strait when he came across a shark, the Daily Mail reported.

The swimmer tried not to panic when he saw the wild animal swimming beneath him.

Right after that, Walker noticed that the dolphins, who was swimming with him from the start, formed a ring around him, which acted as a shield against the shark's attack.

The report said sticking together in pods is the main way of the dolphins to defend one another from a sharks.