A boat load of tourists got more than their money’s worth when they took a whale watching tour in Dana Point, California. The group watched in amazement as a ‘stampede’ of 1,000 dolphins raced beside their boat.

The incident took place off the coast of, on March 14 and footage posted on YouTube shows the dolphins diving through the water alongside one another.

The Dana Point Whale Watching Group who say they were the first to coin the term “Dolphin Stampede” noted that, “The dolphins take off so fast they turn up the water making it white water, you can hear them swimming through the rushing water. They are so graceful even in the frenzied behavior and we are so amazed to see them right off our coast.”

The group apparently watched the dolphins for four hours.

While dolphins normally travel in groups under 200, dolphin stampedes happen spontaneously and can occur anytime throughout the year. It is unknown why pods of dolphins stampede but it is thought to be connected to food or a predator threat.

Here they are: