Playful dolphin joins evening swimmers in Newquay

A fistral RNLI lifeguard was joined by a friendly dolphin on Tuesday evening

Swimmers at a beach have been joined by a "playful" dolphin.

RNLI Fistral lifeguard Arron Evans said he noticed a dolphin who was putting on "quite a show for 20 minutes" off Newquay on Tuesday evening.

Initially heading to the area to check on the swimmers, he said the "friendly" mammal was "playing around".

Mr Evans said he could count on one hand how many times he had seen a dolphin so close in his ten year career.

'quite the display'

He said: "We saw some big splashes and it looked like it was being quite playful, so I went over to check they [the swimmers] were both OK - it was playing around, circling them, jumping out the water and putting on quite the display.

"It was amazing, such a sight to see... it's pretty rare, I've worked for the RNLI for over 10 years and surfed for over 20 years and I can count on one hand the amount of times I've seen dolphins come through, and to see one on its own be that playful, it was a real one-off kind of moment."

Mr Evans said although it was a "pretty rare" moment, swimmers should not approach wild mammals in the ocean.

"The advice is to stay clear as they are wild animals and you want to let them be left alone and not harassed, give them as much room as they need," he added.