A talk on fisheries onboard a River Medway cruise was interrupted by some fishing experts with a difference - when a pod of dolphins turned up.

The Jetstream Tours Fish and Chip cruise had left Chatham yesterday evening, with representatives from the Institute of Fisheries Management and Living River Foundation onboard, when around 30 dolphins appeared and approached the boat.

Richard Bain, captain of the rivercruiser "Jacob Marley", said passengers were treated to some acrobatic displays as the dolphins played in the boat's bow waves.

"We were out on one of our fish and chip cruises, which departs from Sun Pier in Chatham," he said. "We happened to have the Institute of Fisheries Management on board. Part of the fish and chip cruise is the Living River Foundation and we get together various experts on a range of topics.

"We had literally just handed over to the IFM expert, and as we came round Darnet Ness Fort I saw this disturbance in the water. I shouted down and interrupted his talk about fish in the Medway, and everyone just piled out onto the front deck.

"We saw this large pod of dolphins - they were playing around doing a few jumps. Then we realised they were going up river, and we realised they were going further up than they should be, so we turned around and left. We carried on with our cruise and thought we'd keep an eye out when we returned back. We came back about 8.30pm and they had turned around and were heading out to sea coming past Gillingham Strand.

"Everyone on board was just a little bit awestruck. It was the fact there were so many of them.

"We can only assume they came up the Medway following a shoal of fish."

Jetstream Tours posted this video of their encounter with dolphins in the Medway.

Identifying the dolphins was made easier by having marine experts on board, including Richard's wife Tanya Ferry - a marine environmentalist for the Living River Foundation.

Common Dolphins are native to UK Waters but are normally found on the south coast.

It is thought the Medway’s rich fishing grounds are particularly good this year and could have attracted the dolphins further upriver than usual.

Read more: all the latest news from Medway.