And I live in Rockledge, Florida in Brevard County. Anyone know where I can do this? I’ve heard about people doing that around here before, and I’m probably going to have some free time sometime this weekend, so why the hell not? 
I don’t visit beaches often at all, so does anyone know where I can go to do this?
Last summer I spent some time in Grassy Key Florida. There is a marine research facility there… or maybe it was in Marathon, right up the road. They had a dolphin, a baby, that had beached himself. he had a really bad sunburn. The good folks there were nursing him back to health and they needed people to come in and swim with him to keep him entertained and exercised. We went a couple of times and swam with him and fed him. It was very cool. His name was Moonshine. It was free. There are several places that charge about $25.00 for half an hour.
[sup]Possible Objectionable Content. No Nudity[/sup]
Seaworld’s Discovery Cove. Heck, you can stop by on your way in from the coast and grab a beer with me 
Just because it’s so damn appropriate, I’m gonna click the ‘show sig’ box for this post…
I don’t know where you can do it in Florida - Stardust and I did this in Hawaii in December - but I wanted to say go for it. It’s fantastic.
I wanna swim with a dauphin.
Where’s Grass Key? I tried searching for it on yahoo and googling it but nothing came up :-/.
I knew you could feed the dolphines at Seaworld, but I didn’t know you could swim with them. I was really looking to do this without spending any money though. I remember my mom used to work at a motel on Cocoa Beach and there was a guy that would come and go occasionaly that would swim with the dolphines on the beach sometimes. Maybe I’ll ask around on a surfer board at ezboard or something. I’ll take you up on that offer for a beer some other day though. I brother and sister live in Orlando, and I wouldn’t mind visitng another doper .
:eek: :eek: :eek:
FWIW, Discovery Cove is a separate park, but still part of the SeaWorld/Anheuser Busch theme parks. You need an advance reservation to attend the park whether you are swimming with the critters or not (park attendance is limited to about 1,000 per day, if I remember correctly).
I really wouldn’t recommend swimming with the animals in the wild. You are dealing with an animal weighing about 600 lbs, powerful swimmer (getting hit in the head with a tail fluke is not a pretty experience**), and you are the visitor in its environment. You know nothing of that animal’s past history - is it friendly with humans? How can you tell if it is getting angry or frustrated and wants to stop playing but you want to continue? Remember too, they have lots of teeth. Ever see the rakes (scratches) on a dolphin? The more rakes on the body, the lower the animal in the social status. They have a far thicker layer of subcutaneous fat and muscle to protect them from serious damage (you don’t have near as much - imagine a dogbite from a jaw about a foot long), as well as the ‘goodwill’ (not the word I really am looking for, but it will have to do) of the other dolphin initiating the rakes to limit the amount of damage it will do. In their environment, you aren’t going to be the alpha, beta, or even the upsilon member of a pod, and may not get the same level of deferrence if you tick off the animal.
Imagine this scenario: would you likely go dancing with wild bears (cute and cuddly and furry animals like Gentle Ben from the old TV series) in the Ocala National Forest?
At least in somewhere like Discovery Cove or several of the encounter businesses in the Keys, you have a trainer who has worked with the animals, knows their moods (and when to cease the interactions if the animals is getting frustrated, tired, or too roughhousing), as well as immediate help available in case of emergency (bites, accidental drowning, etc.). As intelligent as they are, I doubt a dolphin would be able to contact 911 in case something horrible happened, not limited to the fact they couldn’t hold a cellphone, and the operator doesn’t likely have a “Squeak-to-English” dictionary readily available.
I no longer work for the environmental organization anymore, so I do not have access to state & federal statutes references, but I think there may also be some legal prohibition/advisement against wildlife interation - I know there are one or two regarding manatees. This is Florida: I just found out that it is illegal in the state for your license plate frame to cover up the county or “Sunshine State” words on the bottom of your auto tag. Ergo, there could a law for anything down here.
Does sound like fun, but I’d stick to a safe encounter
** I was leaning over the wall, petting one of the dolphins in the old dolphin encounter area at SW, and another one swam up, turned over and smacked into both me and the dolphin I was playing with. Startled the heck out of both of us. Not sure if it was being playful or wanted attention for itself, but trust me, it wasn’t fun.
You could always try the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills. That is, if they rebuilt it after the ex-governor burned it to the ground.
Not to mention that it’s a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and, therefore, against the law. Check out http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/laws/MMPA/MMPA.html, with specific attention to “penalties” (up to a $10,000 fine and/or 1 year in jail). Unless you have a letter of authorization from the National Marine Fisheries Service, you may not approach within 100 yards of any wild marine mammal (dolphin, porpoise, whale, seal, sea lion), except in the rare case of a stranding of a whale, dolphin, or porpoise requiring immediate response (best to cover with moist towels and call the authorities–do NOT attempt to return it to water on its own as marine mammals usually strand for a very good reason) and only until such time as an authorized representative of a marine mammal stranding response organization arrives on the scene. Any other contact with marine mammals, including feeding, attempts to swim with, following, etc are considered harassment. And, as mentioned above, potentially very dangerous. Remember–dolphins are sharks with better PR. They are top predators that can easily serious injure and/or drown a human being…and, unlike sharks whose “attacks” are usually just attempts to figure out what you are (which, unfortunately, they tend to do by biting), dolphins may do it intentionally. In our newest dolphin show (I work at a public aquarium), we underscore the danger of contact with wild dolphins by showing a video clip of a woman in Florida being bitten on the hand by a wild dolphin she tried to “pet” (and fortunately for her she was in a boat and not in the animal’s environment). You may also want to check out this article http://www.enn.com/features/1999/09/090199/kdolphins_4596.asp.
If you want to swim with dolphins in the US or Canada, you’ll need to find a facility that offers a “Swim With Dolphin” program. And, yes, you’ll have to pay for it. Not only are these the only legal way to swim with the animals, they’re also the only safe way to do so. Animals in these programs have been trained to accept and even enjoy the presence of humans. They’re also screened routinely for medical disorders that could potentially be passed to humans. Moreover, trainers familiar with the animals and their moods are on hand to supervise and know when to intervene in potentially dangerous situations.
Yep, like screech-owl said, Discovery Cove is a separate park on Seaworld property, like Universal’s Islands of Adventure. If you go before the 21st of this month, admission for the Dolphin Swim (including the rest of the park, lunch, and some other stuff) is $229. After the 21st, they’re bumping it up to $249.
You can check out exactly what’s included and whatnot here.
I had no idea it was so freakin’ expensive… I still have a Universal employee ID from a few summers ago, so I’m going to call the employee services office and see if I get a discount… you’ve got me wanting to try it too.
Well I’ll probably have to wait a while before I can do it since I’m not about to risk getting a $10,000 fine or one year in jail. The Dolphine Swim seems like a decent deal since you get 7 days to roam around all of those different parks. I’m adding that link to favorites for when I get a job. Not All That Bright if you follow through and get a pass, tell me what it’s like .