Watch as dolphins leap out of water alongside Weymouth RNLI crew

A pod of dolphins surprised the crew of an RNLI lifeboat when they swam alongside the boat, jumping out of the water and performing tricks.

Footage, which was filmed on Monday (3 September) and shared on local news outlets this week, shows the RNLI Weymouth crew watching in amazement as the pod of dolphins comes up to greet them.

“We had some very special visitors while out on the water this morning,” says RNLI Weymouth, in a social media post. “The crew were luckily in the right place at the right time to see these dolphins playing in the water.”

Weymouth is one of the RNLI‘s busiest lifeboat stations on England’s south coast. It operates two lifeboats – Ernest and Mabel, a Severn class all-weather lifeboat, and Jack & Phyl Cleare, a B class Atlantic 85.

According to Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the species most commonly sighted around the UK coast are bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises. There are populations of bottlenose dolphins in Cardigan Bay in Wales and the Moray Firth in Scotland, but smaller groups or individuals may be seen almost anywhere.