I'm extremely interested in swimming with and interacting with dolphins. Has anyone experienced this in the Keys at Dolphin Research Center, Dolphins Plus, Inc. or Theater of the Sea? What was your experience? Was it worth it? How many others did you have to share the dolphins with?

Pleae, if you care at all about dolphins, don't support this "activity"!!!!! These places often do not take care of them as they should. Although many give you the conservation speel, capturing dolphins for human pleasure is just not right. Just do some snorkeling and perhaps you will see a few. Do not approach or try to feed them if you do encounter them. If they choose to play with you, then have fun! Otherwise, leave them alone, PLEASE! It isn't good for them to get to used to humans when in the wild. Sorry to preach, but it's the truth.

Dolphins in these type of settings don't live as long and are suspectible to human diseases.

Two years ago my daughter and I went to Dolphins Plus in Key Largo. It's a small facility located in one of the canals of a residential neighborhood. The dolphins are seperated in several holding areas with underwater fencing. I had to pay $100 per person; we each had approximately 5 minutes in the water with the dolphins (they boasted 1/2 hour actual swim time with the dolphins in their sales pitch). The first 1/2 hour consists of an instructor educating the group on dolphin anatomy and behavior. Then the instructor seperated us into two groups where, one by one, you interact with the dolphins (it's a series of tricks that the instructor makes the dolphin do), first on a swim platform, and then actually in the water with them. We swam with Nikki and Dreamcatcher. Nikki was very sad because they seperated her from her mate Fonzie. They called to each other throught the whole swim. The instructer got very mad at her because she would not do what she was told. Another "teenage" dolphin in the other group got in trouble for having too much fun and not following directions. Dreamcatcher was very happy to play with us. She took us for a ride, pushing our feet and letting us ride on her dorsel fin. It was an experience that we will always treasure but, I would not go back to do it again because I felt so sorry for the dolphins and how they had to "perform". They didn't seem any better off than a dolphin in an aquarium.

How about Cow tipping? Does anyoneknow a farm that will let us do this? My friends and I have seen it in the Porky movise and it looks like alot of fun.

Joni:

Visit DRC's website.

www.dolphins.org

I will give you a different perspective than DolphinLover who feels (s)he didn't get enough value for the $$. DRC is a non-profit organization and from the experiences I have had at their facility (over that last 20 years) I am incredibly impressed with the work they do.

I think; however, that you need to rethink your question "Was it worth it?" That is only something you can determine. If you are $$ concerned, then you might appear to be more concerned with the "FUN" of swimming VS the actual benefit of see/being with/swimming with the dolphins and learning about their physiology. I myself would (and do) willing give $$ to DRC and I don't swim with the dolphins every year.

They do not take dolphins out of the ocean, they do not introduce "wild" dolphins into their dolphin pod. Orginally their dolphins were a part of the old Flipper's SeaSchool, but that is a thing of the very distant past. There are maybe two dolphins there that are decendants of Flipper. Recently two of their females (Tursi & Merina) gave birth to calfs.

This past January I swam with Pax & Pandora. (about 3 years old each) We had a 2 hour class, a tour of the facility and 45min in the water with both dolphins. It cost us $125pp and $90 of that was tax deductible. (You can't do that at other places since the other places are trying to MAKE money) Many of the workers at DRC are trained volunteers, interns and students studying Marine Biology.

And...if the dolphins do not want to interact with people that day or session, they do not have to. They still get fed, they still get personal attention and they still are loved. You just have to deal with it. They will match you up with dolphins that want to be with people. There were 6 people in our group with two staff members (one in the water & one on the dock for safety) and two dolphins.

If you don't want to spend $125 they have a Dolphin experience session for $90. You stand on a partially submerged dock instead of swimming in the lagoon. It is not as physically demanding, since in the lagoon you have to tread water a majority of the time.

I can go on. In my opinion (and that is all it is) I think DRC does a good job and it is the ONLY place I will go to interact with dolphins. I think wild dolphins should be left alone, I think ill-treated dolphins should be rescued. I believe DRC has a high level of integrity to take care of the dolphins they have in the most humane way they can while still stimulating their sense of curiosity and well-being in a healty environment. They do not introduce wild dolphins since dolphins carry different diseases and those at DRC have never been exposed to many of them. When DRC participates in a dolphin rescue, people who help in the rescue are quarentined for a number of days so they do not bring foreign diseases back to the other dolphins.

Again, please check out their website, it is full of information. I will be more than happy to answer any of your other questions.

Sheli