Wow, I have had my fair share of wild dolphin encounters in my lifetime spending so much time in the water but this one takes the cake.

I grew up surfing and we saw and even touched dolphins as they played in the waves with us off the Jersey coast but yesterday was amazing. I had the family out for a boat ride in the bay and I saw a dorsel fin pop up so I slowed downto a stop. There was this bottlenose dolphin swimming up to fishing boats and almost asking for a handout. He saw us and swam towards us. I put my hand out and he actually elevated himself halfway out of the water and I touched his snout. He opened his mouth so I touched his teeth and tongue and rubbed his head. My wife and son were petting him as well. He swam from boat to boat slapping his tail in the water and rolling over for all of us. It was like Sea-World and the wild had collided in some cosmic explosion. I got one pic on the BlackBerry. It was awesome.

That really is incredible. I have swam with dolphins before on a day outing when I was cruising on my honeymoon, but that is crazy. Our swim was a little more controlled and we were in the water with a trained dolphin doing tricks for food. I can not believe that this dolphin did not have any issues with getting that close to people or boats. This just goes to show how amazing some animals are. Maybe it was a cousin of flipper.