Getting up, close and personal with a dolphin is something many only dream of.
But one local scuba diver is forming a friendship with a dolphin he first spotted three weeks ago.
Ryan Duchatel, a local diving instructor and owner of Total Immersion Diving, scuba dives under the Swansea bridge multiple times a week.
“It’s a very popular diving location because it’s easily accessible from the shore, with depths that are suited to all range of certifications including beginners,” he explains.
Throughout his diving career, Ryan has seen many underwater creatures, but says dolphin interactions are incredibly rare.
“I’ve done over 1000 scuba dives, including many at Swansea bridge and have only seen dolphins swimming past, never sticking around, less than 5 times.”
But this month, a dolphin came up and had a lengthy underwater interaction with him.
Ryan attests this to the equipment he and his team use.
While normal scuba diving releases a lot of bubbles which scare away the sea life, he uses ‘rebreathers’ which circulate the gas around a closed system resulting in no bubbles and less noise.
He has no doubt this was key to his up-close encounter.
Take a look at this incredible exclusive footage Ryan captured.
