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  • (upbeat music)

  • (people shriek)

  • - We became friends with a family of wild dolphins.

  • - [Nat] And this is their story.

  • - Hey, I'm Mark.

  • - I'm Nat.

  • - And this is Zyzz.

  • - We're a group of friends who surf subwing

  • and, really, we try to get out there

  • and appreciate these beautiful-by-nature islands

  • as much as we possible can.

  • Turks and Caicos pretty much has consistent flat water

  • the entire year 'round.

  • - So, we don't tend to get any surf-able waves here

  • so, luckily, we've got these amazing boats

  • that kick up huge waves

  • for our guests, for ourselves, and-

  • - [Nat] And that's kind of become our favorite spot.

  • - I think about three, four years ago,

  • we were out filming.

  • We'd actually brought me dog along as well.

  • We were kicking up the waves.

  • Zyzz was out and about in the water.

  • This wild dolphin just came right up to us,

  • started playing around the boat.

  • Turns out this dolphin's name is Jojo.

  • He's been swimming around the islands of Providenciales

  • for the last 40 or so years.

  • Everybody has an incredible story interacting with him,

  • locals, tourists, the lot.

  • He's definitely a bit of an adrenaline junkie.

  • One of his favorite activities to do is to surf.

  • Just as we love surfing, he loves catching that wave.

  • Sadly, he doesn't get the opportunity to ocean surf,

  • so we kind of had a bit of a mutual agreement

  • where we kick up a wave and he'll come and join us

  • and we both share the wave together.

  • - He'll come up in front of the boat

  • and he'll actually lift his tail out of the water

  • and give a nice big old slap

  • just before the boat reaches him

  • almost to say like, "Yeah, let's go."

  • - He gets pumped up as soon as anyone on the boat

  • starts cheering, screaming, shouting.

  • When we get excited when he's around,

  • he definitely starts surfacing more,

  • jumps a little bit higher.

  • He really kind of thrives on that excitement

  • that he hears from other people.

  • (people shriek)

  • - [Off Camera] Oh my God!

  • Get that?

  • - So, Jojo has actually been known occasionally

  • to protect humans from sharks,

  • so he's kind of-

  • Sharks aren't dangerous, but occasionally I guess

  • maybe if there's an object in the water,

  • maybe he might think that a human is a little uncertain

  • around the shark

  • and he's definitely been known to put himself

  • in between the human and the shark

  • and try and scare the shark off.

  • So, Zyzz is a true water dog.

  • He really kind of suited the lifestyle here

  • and just loves getting in the water

  • whenever he gets the chance.

  • Jojo's specifically been known to make lifelong friends

  • with a lot of different dogs through the years

  • and we have a feeling that when the dog's out in the water,

  • the dolphin tends to kind of seek him out.

  • The first few times that they met,

  • they kind of really kicked it off

  • and whenever Zyzz is out on the boat now

  • and the dolphins are around,

  • he's straight in.

  • The dolphins get super excited.

  • They'll just start swimming around

  • and he'll just follow them and tail them around.

  • They'll turn, he'll turn,

  • and they just like to follow each other

  • in a little dolphin train, almost.

  • It's amazing to watch.

  • Jojo's got a little baby, Dreamer,

  • who is super friendly just like Jojo

  • and he's slowly starting to teach her to surf as well.

  • He's teaching her that humans can be friends.

  • She's really picked up off him

  • and she really gets stoked as well.

  • - You can pick up bits of coral.

  • She'll come and grab it, swim around with it.

  • It'll go over part of her fin almost like she's carrying it.

  • And it just becomes this incredible game

  • that you're playing with a little dolphin.

  • It's amazing.

  • - Bo is Dreamer's mum, Jojo's- I guess- dolphin wife.

  • She is always alongside Dreamer.

  • You'll never see Dreamer by herself.

  • You'll always see Bo looking after Dreamer.

  • Jojo occasionally cruises around by himself

  • but Bo is always looking after Dreamer.

  • We've built up a relationship now with Dreamer

  • where Bo trusts us

  • and what she'll do is she'll leave baby Dreamer with us

  • and she'll go off fishing and go and do her little thing

  • and then she'll come back, pick Dreamer up,

  • and she'll take her away.

  • - Bo is more reserved.

  • Jojo is definitely a thrill-seeker.

  • Maybe they have different parenting ideas. We don't know.

  • So, they tried to implement a dolphinarium

  • down here several years ago.

  • It was actually on Grand Turk

  • where all the cruise industry comes in.

  • So, all the big cruise ships go to that island.

  • They were proposing to put a dolphinarium

  • up in one of the creeks on the island.

  • It got massive backlash. Nobody wanted it to happen.

  • Part of the whole campaign that came from that

  • was we had these stickers which said,

  • "Jojo says no to captivity,"

  • and you'd be hard-pressed to go around this island

  • and not see that on the back of someone's car here.

  • We love dolphins being in the wild.

  • They swim up to 60 miles a day on average.

  • What's a dolphin gonna do in a little pool?

  • It's not right and, thankfully,

  • people down here had the right visions and they stopped it.

  • - Jojo's definitely an ambassador

  • to really stop this whole captivity thing.

  • Every interaction that we have with him

  • is totally on his terms

  • and that's how every interaction with a dolphin should be.

  • They've actually named him a national treasure

  • and it's now illegal to harm him in any sort of way.

  • He proves that dolphins wanna play with humans,

  • that they can be friendly,

  • that they can give these amazing memories to everybody

  • without having to be forced to do so

  • and it's amazing to watch.

  • (upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

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