A swimmer that was rescued two and a half miles out at sea could have been helped by dolphins.
Dolphin
The male swimmer was located in the water off County Kerry in Ireland surrounded by a pod of the creatures after spending 12 hours struggling at sea.
The unnamed man was saved by a Fenit RNLI lifeboat on Sunday (22.08.21) and his rescue was described as a "miracle" by RNLI volunteer Jackie Murphy.
RNLI coxswain Finbarr O'Connell calculated where the man was likely to be and noted that there were "a lot of dolphins around".
He told the Irish Independent newspaper: "Maybe they helped him in some way or another: who knows?"
O'Connell added that it was miraculous that the man survived the ordeal and suggested that he would have been killed if he had been discovered any later.
He said: "He was very, very lucky. There is no doubt about it. Another half an hour, and he was a goner. None of us or the medics can believe he survived it."