As if to thank him for his support, a pod of 10 dolphins arrived to keep Adam Walker safe from a shark during part of his 16-mile swim through New Zealand’s Cook Strait. Walker was swimming to raise money for dolphin conservation.

The dolphins arrived soon after Walker noticed a great white shark swimming beneath him in the cold, rough waters April 22, reported the Huffington Post. They joined him for an hour, leaving only after the shark had departed.

"I'd like to think they were protecting me and guiding me home!!!" Walker wrote on Facebook.

Walker, who’s from England, finished the swim in 8 hours, 36 minutes.

He has now completed all but one of the legs of the Ocean’s Seven challenge, a series of seven long-distance open-water swims. In addition to Cook Strait, he has done swims in the English Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Catalina Channel, Molokai Strait and Tsugaru Strait. He plans to undertake his seventh and final swim in August in the North Channel, which separates Northern Ireland and Scotland.

His efforts raise money for the nonprofit Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

Walker battled high waves and seasickness in Cook Strait but called his experience with the dolphins a “dream come true” when he shared the YouTube video of the event on Facebook. The video has been viewed more than 1.6 million times in five days.

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