Today we experienced one of the more special items on our 101 list! We "swam" with dolphins at the Marineland Dolphin Conservation Center in St. Augestine. Ryan got me this as one of my 25th birthday gifts. What a great time we had. We spent 30 quick minutes with several dolphins, their babies, and a trainer. We would do what the trainer instructed us to do and then the dolphins would do tricks. For example, we started dancing and then the dolphins would mimic us. We would raise our right hand in the air and they would jump. With every trick, we'd feed them fish. The main dolphins we interacted with were Dazzle and Roxy. They are both females who have babies so that was neat to be so close to the 4 month babies but we were not allowed to touch them. We learned so much and had so much fun. The time flew bye too quickly, but what an experience! I have never been a huge animal person, but dolphins are truly intelligent creatures and so loving. They loved when we massaged them or pet their bellies and it was too weird when you would lock eye contact with the dolphins. The great place about where we went is that it is a non-profit unlike SeaWorld and Discovery Cove and they rescue a lot of the dolphins. A dolphin's like expectancy in the wild is about 25 years, but at Marineland they live to almost 40. Right now they have the oldest dolphin who is 54 ever known in the world. In Seaworld, the dolphins only live until about 10 and a hidden fact is that many of them commit suicide (close their blow holes) because they are so miserable in such small spaces and are overworked too much. yay for dolphins.
2 comments:
Wow, Ter, that is really awesome! It's sad to hear about the dolphins at Sea World, but great to hear about the Conservancy. I'm glad you guys had so much fun.
You guys are amazing. This looks like so much fun! Great idea to make this blog to keep us updated on your progress.
So, what's up next on your list?
-Ryan
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