Creating the Wild Dolphin Swim Project with Terry Howson

"I grew up spending most of my life in water," says Terry Howson, the founder of Perth Wildlife Encounters. "Swimming, surfing, sailing, boating. I saw dolphins all the time, and one day I decided I wanted to make friends with them. God knows how I thought I'd do that!" But he did.

Snorkelling with dolphins. Image: Perth Wildlife Encounters.

"I stole Dad's dinghy and spent 12 hours a day, every day, trying to become friends. At first, when I swam with them, they would swim away. Then one day, I nailed it, and a female dolphin kept coming back to me. She started introducing me to other dolphins, sheltering them under her pectoral fin. Now, when I jump in the water, there are up to 200 individuals that I can swim with. I have a real friendship with them."

Cape Peron, part of the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park. Image: Perth Wildlife Encounters.

Terry is quick to explain that every encounter he has – and every encounter he now shares with guests – is on the dolphins' terms. "They're wild animals – they're not pets. I give guests a very in-depth talk about this before we set out to see them. They're like humans: sometimes they want to be social, sometimes they don't. If they do, there's a very strict way guests need to behave in the water with them. I want the interaction to be a really wild experience." 

Swimming with dolphins. Image: Perth Wildlife Encounters.

Terry says it's "a real honour and a privilege that the dolphins have taken me into their world. I've had so many incredible encounters with them. I've been involved in a birth, and once saved a calf from fishing line it was caught in. I had a knife in my mouth and pulled her in to cut off the line. The mum was next to me, screaming. When she realised what I was doing, she let the baby come to me. I thought the calf would scoot off when the line was cut, but she went to her mum, turned around, and winked at me."