Here’s a story that sounds very much like one recounted by that slightly annoying friend who always insists on telling you about their dreams, starring ninety-one year old Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke and a pod of life saving sea creatures…

According to Dyke, several years ago, whilst out surfing at Virginia beach, off the East Coast of the US, he fell asleep on his board and found himself drifting out to sea. “I’m not kidding,” he assures us, “I woke up out of sight of land.” the actor told Craig Ferguson on his chat show.

“I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought ‘I’m dead!'” but Van Dyke was not dead, he was being saved, by porpoises.

“They turned out to be porpoises,” he said. “And they pushed me all the way to shore.”

Although the story sounds a little bit #posttruth, there are many reports of dolphins and porpoises stepping in to save humans in their times of need.

One of the most compelling examples features another surfer, named Todd Endris, who was reportedly saved by a pod of bottlenose dolphins in California back in 2007. After getting bitten three times by a great white, a pod reportedly formed a ring around Endris, until he was able to get back on his board and catch a wave to the beach.

The evidence is so compelling in fact, that some scientists have concluded that dolphins may be the only species, other than humans, to display altruism.

Cover photo: Flickr/ Kuribo