Featured Image Credit: Red Sea Diving Safari
By Sarah Sharkey
A woman went freediving with wild dolphins in the Red Sea. A perfectly normal occurrence, but she took her two and a half year old child with her! Wild dolphins were not the only animals seen in this clip though; multiple jellyfish can be seen floating throughout the video.
The footage was taken off the coast of Egypt and posted on Facebook by the Red Sea Diving Safari. The mother and son duo spent time swimming with wild dolphins, which may sound alarming, but the mother seemed to keep a close eye on the baby at all times. The little boy seemed to know what he was doing as far as holding his breath and equalizing during the dives.
Understandably, there was a wide range of emotions displayed in the comments of this video. A spectrum critical to positive, but most of the comments were positive.
Faye Wilde wrote, “Beautiful little water baby and so lovely for them to experience dolphins swimming wild and free, a great message [from] the parents.”
Giblerto Epizona was a critic who wrote, “Stupid parents… allowing a baby to swim with [jellyfishes]. It’s dangerous. Besides, dolphins are unpredictable, they put the baby at risk.”
There were enough negative comments to elicit a reply from the Red Sea Diving Safari:
“Just to clarify for anyone who is concerned, the decision to let this family and young child go was not undertaken lightly. The decision was passed from the diving centre, to village management then to senior management of RSDS who discussed the matter with the parents and established how experienced they were and how much time the child had spent in the sea previously.
“This, along with completely flat sea conditions, was what led to this trip going ahead. The safety of all our guests, no matter what age, is the most important thing. We will do whatever we can to allow anyone (and we’re not just talking about age here) to enjoy the Red Sea as long as it is safe to do so.”
It seems that the child was safe the whole time. He got to experience the dive of a a lifetime!