Shark attacks often look terrifying in movies but are actually even more terrifying in real life. As such, a man attacked by sharks was saved by an unlikely group of animals, dolphins.
Dolphins Save Man from Shark Attack
According to Live Science, dolphins saved a man attacked by sharks in the Red Sea in Egypt. The man, Martin Richardson, was swimming when suddenly a mako shark attacked.
The man sustained serious injuries, being bitten approximately five times. As such, Richardson was just waiting to die when unlikely saviors came to his rescue.
Richardson narrated how he was just waiting to die and had given up hope due to the amount of blood he had lost. However, an unlikely group of dolphins appeared, and the attack stopped.
Live Science reports that Richardson said he lost around 5 pints of blood, placing him in a critical state since the human body only has around 8 to 9 pints. After the dolphins successfully stopped the shark attack, he was picked up by a boat and rushed to the hospital.
Devastating Shark Attack
As reported by Mirror, when Richardson arrived at the hospital, he was given over 300 stitches. As such, he maintains that it was really the dolphins that saved his life since when the shark stopped attacking when the group of dolphins came.
Regarding whether dolphins truly save human beings, NatGeo's SharkFest cited four cases similar to what happened to Richardson. In all cases, people were protected against predators by other animals.
Live Science reports that Tom Hird, a shark conservationist and marine biologist, described the idea of being saved by another animal as "romantic." Despite this, Mike Heithaus, a Florida International University biological sciences professor, commented on how saving Richardson's life might not have been the original intention of the dolphins.
Heithaus said that a likely reason for the dolphins fending away sharks. He explained that when a cloud of blood is seen in the water, this often shows how sharks were in the area, and if the dolphins had young with them, they'd want to scare the shark off.
This meant that the dolphins might not have intentionally tried to save Richardson.
Dolphins Surround Lifeguards
Despite providing an alternative intention of the dolphins in Richardson's case, Heithaus shared another case of dolphins protecting humans. As such, this case involved a situation off the coast of New Zealand, where a group of lifeguards were swimming.
New Zealand Herald reports that in that scenario, a group of dolphins encircled them, and when they discovered why, it was realized that a great white shark was stalking them. Rob Howes, a lifeguard in that scenario, said that although he was used to dolphins, he could sense the changes during that time.
This was as a male dolphin charged toward the lifeguard and missed. This was because instead of the lifeguard, the dolphin was actually targeting an approaching shark.
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