When a wild dolphin called Freddie appears in the harbour of a tired English fishing town and forms a deep friendship with Alan, a devastating rumour emerges. Binge all episodes of Hooked on Freddie exclusively and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/links/hooked-on-freddie/ now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Wondery.
September 28, 1990.
It's a fine day in Amble, a coastal town on the tip of Northeast England.
But we're not in the town.
We're about a quarter of a mile out in the North Sea.
A man's in the water, wearing a wetsuit with yellow arms.
And he's just hanging there alone.
His name is Alan Cooper, and at first, yes, he is all alone.
But then something dark moves at speed under the water.
Circles, disappears, and then resurfaces.
Now we can see him.
It's a wild dolphin, a bottlenose, and he wants to play.
He twists onto his side, inviting Alan to take hold of his dorsal fin.
He will start to dive.
Just go straight down for about 20ft and then come swiftly back up and you'd both explode out the water.
It was just out of this world, you know, I was in the time of my life, just something special.
I swam 10 hours.
I think it was one day.