During a trip to Florida in January of 1998, SARAH AND NANCY had a wonderful experience at the DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTER, GRASSY KEY FLORIDA. We signed up for the half day DOLPHIN ENCOUNTER program, the culmination of which was an hour long opportunity to swim in the lagoon with two dolphins: SANTINI AND ALETA.
These dolphins are members of a pod that began with the dolphins used to film the Flipper movies. New Dolphins have been added either by birth to one of the females in the pod or by retirement from a program such as SEA WORLD or the NAVY SEALS. The DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTER does not accept dolphins captured from the wild. and it serves as a local resource for dolphin rescue and strandings and for manatee rescue. Rescued individuals are rehabilitated and returned to the wild.
The DOLPHIN ENCOUNTER begins with an hour long introduction to the DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTER and an explanation of what a swim with dolphins entails. You are carefully taught the hand signals you will use as well as how to behave in the water with dolphins, and a brief introduction to the DRC.
The next hour is spent on a tour of the facility, during which time whe had the opportunity to observe each of the resident dolphins, Including a six week old calf who cavorted around her mother.
The DRC dolphins are all Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins, and there are several sea lions as well. A special program at DRC is the Dolphin Assisted Therapy program in which children or adults with special needs interact with the dolphins in a therapeutic environment. You can find out more about Dolphin Assisted therapy in the links below.
DOLPHIN LINKS
DOLPHIN ASSISTED THERAPY
A fascinating aspect of Dolphin encounters is their use in animal assisted therapy.
MARATHON KEY, DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTER
DOLPHIN RESEARCH CENTER
The homepage of "OUR" dolphins
THE NATIONAL MARINE MAMMAL LABORATORY
RED CARIBE~NA DE VARAMIENTOS
CARIBBEAN STRANDING NETWORK
RETURN TO SKY'S PAGE
This page hosted by GeoCities. Get your own Free Home Page