7. Dolphin Swim Part Three

Back on shore, I met Jessica, the trainer who was assigned to me, a tanned, attractive, friendly young woman who had been working with dolphins for several years. I followed her around to the platform from which we'd be working. As she stepped onto the platform with her bucket of fish, a silvery rostrum followed by sleek sides broke the surface of the natural lagoon. "Oh look, there's Nicky", Jessica said.

Nicky was 'my' dolphin for the next hour, a pink belly dolphin with freckles on her rostrum and according to Jessica and the rest of the staff, the "second-in-command diva", who was known for making her preferences quite clear. At about one-fifth of her weight, I was pretty willing to defer to her. This was her world and I was clear I was just a guest.

Jessica asked Nicky through hand signals to swim close to the platform, so that I could touch her and we could get used to each other. Jessica told me that the dolphins often get bored, and so she liked to vary the interactions and the tricks as much as she could.

First trick! Jessica asked me to swim out from the platform and cup my hands underneath my face. That was Nicky's cue to swim toward me and give me a 'kiss'. I have to admit that I was a little nervous, watching a 600 pound mammal zip toward me in the water at what looked like top speed. Amazingly, Nicky put on the brakes, and gently touched her nose to mine. Her rostrum felt warm and cold all at the same time, and felt the way that a leather chair might feel if you ran water over it. After this exercise, I realized that Nicky wasn't just running through her tricks, she was somehow taking my ability in the water into account.
We did a series of exercises that were all loads of fun. For one I floated on my back in the water, made sure my toes weren't pointed, and Nicky pushed me around the cove. For another, she brought a hula hoop for me and I held it to the side while she jumped through. We also did a 'handshake', where I hung vertically in the water with my hands about shoulder width, the way you'd look if you were describing how big a fish is, and Nicky zoomed toward me underwater. Suddenly, there she was, her flippers outstretched like hands reaching for my own, and we were face to face. In this position, I could see both her eyes at one time, and I could feel her long body brushing against mine, tail near my feet. What struck me then was the absolute intelligence in her eyes and power in those muscles.

I ended the afternoon just as pumped up as I could be--I felt like a little kid! It was an amazing experience, and I was very glad that I had taken the time to swim with the dolphins. And of course, I ended up buying the CD of photographs that the photographer took while Nicky and I were swimming. I wasn't going to, initially, but once I looked through them I went for it. I guess you could say I took the bait:-)

7. Dolphin Swim Part Two

I arrived at Dolphin Cove, a marine education and dolphin swim facility in Key Largo, Florida a half-hour before my scheduled time, a combination of anal-retentiveness and "oh-my-gosh-I-can't-wait-for-Christmas-and-I'm-about-to-meet-Flipper" excitement. I had signed up for the premier swim, and this is what was promised:

Premier Dolphin Swims begin with a 30-45 minute educational briefing aboard one of our Everglades tour boats. During this time you will be able to observe the unique beauty of our back country while learning about dolphin natural history, intelligence, anatomy, and important information about your upcoming dolphin encounter.Dolphin swims take place in our natural lagoon. Swimmers will take turns entering the water and participating in hands-on behaviors with our dolphins. All interaction is guided by a dolphin trainer, and one on one contact is guaranteed.

Alright! This was what I had wanted, to get up close and personal, even though the 'guided interaction' part seemed a bit restricted, the one-on-one sounded interesting.

I liked that the facility was very clean and well-maintained, as I believe that reflected management's attitude about the care of the dolphins themselves. As I waited impatiently for the boat ride in the covered waiting area, I noticed that there was a binder with photos of all of the dolphins, where each dolphin was named and described by personality and age. Now, I'm not the kind of person who attributes human traits to their animals/pets the way that some people do, but I have to admit that considering the dolphins I was about to meet as having names, jarred my thinking a bit. I guess I didn't think of them as having distinct personalities and preferences, but wasn't that what being sentient was all about? "Stay open-minded, stay open-minded", I told myself.

Finally, we got on the tour boat for our promised briefing. There were about ten of us who listened to a young dolphin trainer tell us about dolphin anatomy. I learned that their 'snout' is called a 'rostrum', and each one is like a fingerprint, with distinctive markings. So is their dorsal fin, with a unique shape and notches particular to each dolphin. Probably the most interesting thing I learned was how young dolphins nurse, since dolphins are mammals, give live birth and nurse their young just like us humans. But, where were the teats on a female dolphin? Surely having a nipple or two would cut down on the streamlining they need to zip through the water unencumbered?

Turns out that instead of teats, they have two slits about two thirds of the way down their body on the underside, and the baby dolphin is born with the ability to curl their tongue like a straw. While nursing, the baby sticks their curled tongue into one of the slits and slurps away. Voila! Baby dolphin dinner on-the-go.

All the dolphins at Dolphin Cove were trained to vocal commands, hand signals, and whistles. Our tour guide took us through the various guided interactions that we would be experiencing, and spent the last ten minutes training us on how to behave in the water. We'd be wearing buoyant life vests which would allow us to suspend upright in the water, which was a key part in some of the dolphin 'tricks'. For example, I was to hang in the water with my hands out to the sides, making a 't', with my thumbs pointed down. The dolphin would swim around behind me, pick a side, and place their dorsal fin in the web of my thumb. My part would be to just hang on as this was the dorsal fin ride I'd been imagining since my first "Flipper" show. I couldn't wait to meet my dolphin!

7. Swim with Dolphins

I'm guessing this desire started way back when I was a kid, watching the tv show 'Flipper', a show about an intelligent bottlenose dolphin who interacted with a park ranger and his two young sons. There are two scenes that I remember most vividly: one of Flipper 'laughing', with his head out of water and making squeaky 'ack-ack' dolphin sounds, and another of someone holding on to Flipper's dorsal fin and going for a ride. Flipper seemed so smart, a cross between a horse and a mermaid, and I wanted to meet a Flipper friend for myself.

Later, in my early adult years, as we learned more about dolphin intelligence, their use of echolocation, and their assistance of humans in distress, the question was raised: are humans the only sentient life on the planet? Was novelist Douglas Adams right when he wrote in 'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish' that the dolphins were actually here to save us humans? Could it be that dolphin consciousness is equivalent to our own, with equivalent forms of communication, family and friend relationships and a sense of community? What would it be like to meet fin-to-face with one of these intelligent mammals? Would I experience a 'mystical meeting of souls' as one of my more metaphysically inclined friends had experienced? Or would I be transported back to my childhood frame of mind, playfully excited to just be in the water with my friend Flipper? I decided to do my best to leave pre-conceived notions behind, and just stay open to what happened.