Dolphins save swimmer’s life when great white shark appears

You know how it goes: You’re just minding your business, swimming 16 miles for charity, when some dolphins show up to protect you from a shark.

It sounds like a fairy tale — or a comic book — but that’s exactly what happened to British long-distance swimmer Adam Walker on April 22.

According to The Huffington Post, dolphins began swimming with Walker at one leg of his 16-mile swim through New Zealand’s Cook Strait, but when a great white shark appeared beneath him, the group formed a circle around him until the shark swam away.

Walker was swimming the strait as part of the Ocean’s Seven, “a global challenge to complete seven long-distance swims.” He was swimming for — interestingly enough — the nonprofit Whale and Dolphin Conservation. He has one more competition to go.