Watch: Bottlenose dolphins swimming off the coast of Fleetwood during RNLI training

A Fleetwood RNLI volunteer captured a magical moment during training yesterday evening, when he was joined in the water off the coast by bottlenose dolphins.
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A Fleetwood RNLI volunteer was taken by surprise during training at around 7pm yesterday (Thursday July 22) when he was joined out at sea by some inquisitive bottlenose dolphins.

Dolphin pods are becoming a regular occurrence in the waters off the Fylde coast, and back in June a pod surrounded Bury couple Adam Kluj and Vicky Hopkinson off Starr Gate, while they were out jet-skiing four miles off the coast.

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Dr Emily Baxter, senior marine conservation officer at North West Wildlife Trusts, said a reduction in pollution and improvement in water quality over the past few years could have played a role in increased sightings of cetaceans - marine mammals - off the Fylde coast.

Bottlenose dolphins were spotted swimming off the coast of Fleetwood on Thursday evening by a Fleetwood RNLI volunteer during his training session. Pic: RNLI FleetwoodBottlenose dolphins were spotted swimming off the coast of Fleetwood on Thursday evening by a Fleetwood RNLI volunteer during his training session. Pic: RNLI Fleetwood
Bottlenose dolphins were spotted swimming off the coast of Fleetwood on Thursday evening by a Fleetwood RNLI volunteer during his training session. Pic: RNLI Fleetwood

She said: "Dolphin and porpoise sightings (and even whales) have been a regular occurrence in the summer months off Blackpool for at least the past 10 years. There are however, well known hotspots for marine mammals and basking sharks, particularly off the North Wales coast and around the Isle of Man.

"This is due to how weather systems interact with the seabed causing areas of cold, nutrient-rich ‘upwellings’ that stimulate plankton blooms and then fish, birds and marine mammals soon follow. These areas are close to the coast of the North West and Liverpool Bay so when conditions are right, they can be seen feeding close to our shores as well.

"There have also been improvements in water quality and reduction in pollution over the past few decades, which are bound to have helped."

You can see the dolphins getting involved with the RNLI training in our video player above!

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