A Day With A Dolphin - August 1999

Graphically Intense Page Loading!!
A Day In 1999

My day started as any other day would while on vacation in Hawaii. Up early, Kona Macadamia Nut coffee in hand, sitting on the lanai, breathing in the sea air ... just enjoying the peace of paradise. Little did I know that this day would be a most special day ... a day I would long remember after it was over.

One of the places in Hawaii to spend your day is at Sea Life Park. We have been there many many times and will continue to go back as there is something about a day there that sets that day apart from all other days. Maybe its the Green Sea Turtle Pool, where they methodically swim sticking their heads up only occasionally to catch your glimpse or maybe its the Hawaiian Monk Seal habitat, where watching them frolic does indeed bring you back to childhood when smiles were contagious. Or maybe it is just to be surrounded by these wonderful creatures for a time is something so indescribable that any words would certainly not do it justice.

Sea Life Park now has a program called "Splash U", where in a controlled environment you can interact with a dolphin. Something I highly recommend to adults and children alike. This program teaches you how the dolphins are cared for, their teaching methods and about this mammal in general. You actually get in the pool with the dolphin, although you do not swim with it, as dolphins have a funny way of playing, they ram each other sometimes at 30 mph, and let's face it, most human beings would find this most painful.

Your training session with the dolphin is about 30 minutes long and in this session you are accompanied by the Dolphin's real trainer. You are taught how to command the dolphin into their behaviors, which are the same as when they are in the wild. These commands, which are all hand signals, include a breach, jump, shake hand or flipper, depending on how you lQQk at it, speak, dance the hula, a tail flap and tail walk. However the tail walk is not a natural behavior, and since they are highly intelligent, they are able to learn this.

Dolphins are taught through a method called Operant Conditioning. Which means undesired behaviors are simply ignored and desired behaviors are rewarded with a fish. But they respond well to rubdowns and play time with their toys too. They can weigh anywhere from 300 to 950 pounds, be 8 to 11 feet in length and eat 35 pounds of fish a day. They give birth to live young, that weight about 30 pounds and can swim from the moment they are born and nurse for two to three years before being weaned. They locate food in the ocean by using an enhanced sense of hearing called Ecolocation. They send out a series of high-pitched clicking sounds created by the air sacs within their head and transmitted through the dolphin's forehead or melon. Dolphins breath air so they are mammals, just like you and me, they are not fish.

The Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) I was lucky enough to share an unforgettable 30 minutes with was Punahele. She is the mother of Keikaimalu, the first Wolphin (Pseudora X Tursiops) born in captivity. Keikaimalu is 1/2 Bottlenose Dolphin and 1/2 False Killer Whale (Pseudorca Crassidens). Punahele was a wonderful partner to have as an introduction into the world of the dolphin. LQQking me in the eye, spitting water at me in her playful way and seeming to smile at me, although it is scientifically unfounded that they can smile, it is just the way their jaw is formed. She seemed to be smiling at me all the same as she performed her behaviors that I commanded of her. Allowing me to help her trainer give her a medical exam, trusting in a human being that she did not know that I would not hurt her and allowing me to see that this world would just not be the same if her species were to become extinct someday. I will visit Punahele again and again and all her dolphin brothers and sisters at Sea Life Park, if only for a short time, as sharing her world was a joy and a privilege. A privilege I had the honor to experience and one I shall not ever forget.

Being a part of her magical world has only re-enforced to me that we must do all we can to save these magnificent creatures. Here are some things you can do to help make the Dolphins world a little safer and cleaner:

* Conserve water by fixing leaks and using less
* Use fewer harmful chemicals and pollutants and dispose of them properly
* Recycle reusable materials and compost
* Participate in stream cleaning programs
* Educate others about the harmful practices of drift net fishing and indiscriminate longline fishing
* Learn and practice safe boating
* DO NOT feed dolphins in the wild or encourage them to approach boats
* DO NOT litter
* Obey fishing regulations
* Help protect coral reefs by NEVER taking live coral
* DO NOT stand on coral reefs or anchor a boat on it
* Assist authorities by reporting any harassment of whales, dolphins or turtles to the National Marine Fisheries Service.