Dolphin World Blog

Hi All,

Just thought I would let you know we now offer a Dolphin Swim / Sea Lion Mini workshop where you get to do both swim with the dolphins in Nassau but now also get to swim with the Sea Lions too. This 1/2 day program will be a great way to discover both animals. The cost will be $245 both 30 minute interaction with the animals.

Also, Coming soon, the facility will be offering an All Day Beach Event where guests can stay the entire day or as they deem necessary. For example, a guest who would book a Sea Lion Program for the morning and a Dolphin Program in the afternoon. The guest will have beach access with swimming facility, hammocks, volleyball, basketball, game area and have the option of renting water sports, purchasing lunch (grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, chicken burgers, snacks and beverages).

The new beach day program will begin on Monday, June 30, 2008. This date will be confirmed by early next week.

If you are traveling to Nassau or Paradise Island, I think you will really enjoy the new Dolphin Swim / Sea Lion Mini Workshop and have a great day with my favorite animals, dolphins and sea lions.
How many people out there go to Nassau? Is it one of your favorite destinations?
God Bless,
John

Hi All,

I got to the North Lauderdale Wyland Mural site just in time because he was about to get started with his work of this huge Mural. This is the last mural he is going to paint in North America. This is mural 99 and plans to stop with mural 100 that he plans to paint in China this year before the Olympics. When I got there, there were hardly any onlooker yet but they were prepared for many to arrive. They had many trucks with staff and materials, viewing stands and podium for announcements. So they were planning on a big affair.

I rushed around to see where Wyland was. I asked and there he was right in front of me. He was in the process of sketching out his design for the mural on a piece of paper. From what I have read, he never plans his mural. Only on the day of the murals, he designs the mural and then implement the design.

When I saw him, I introduced myself to him and mentioned that I stayed at his hotel, the Wyland Waikiki this past month. It brought a smile to him. He was gracious and said to me “hey, you want to take a photo with me”. “Of coarse”,I said, I obliged him and had a photo with him. He was really chatty and nice. He said “stick around I am about to start my work”.

I did not get to see the design but I hope he gets lots of dolphin swimming around in his mural, because these are my favorite marine animal. But I will have to wait till next Saturday to see the final outcome of his work.

Here are some photos of what I saw today.

Wyland’s Truck with All His Supplies

Wyland taking a photo with me

Wyland getting ready to start his Mural

Base coat done and Wyland letting the airbrush fly

They said he will be finished in 1 week, so hopefully I will be there by Wednesday to see the 1/2 way point to report to you all.

I have to say I was pretty excited to see and meet him. He seems to be doing a lot to help promote sealife awareness. You may want to check out his Wyland Fondation to see what he is into and stand for.
Do you like what Wyland is doing for the Ocean and Marine life?
God Bless,
John

Hi there,

I thought this was news worthy because this new law in New Zealand is going to impact many people lives/income and the rare Hector Dolphins. This Reuter’s article states “New Zealand plans to ban commercial fishing near its coast and set up marine reserves to protect the rare Hector’s dolphins, a government minister said on Thursday, May 29th.”

Animal Conservationist say the law does not go far enough to protect the Hector Dolphin and the fishing industry says that this law is going affect the New Zealand fishing industry tremendously.

<Read More on the Story>
I would love to see the beautiful Hector Dolphin’s swimming area be protected but I also hate seeing people livelihoods being taken away. I wish there was a good balance. What is your opinion?
God Bless,
John

Hi All,

I just came back from Waikiki and stayed at the Wyland Waikiki Hotel. The reason I stayed at this hotel was because I knew about the artist, Wyland, and thought I would give it a try (I will post on my stay at the hotel soon). I am not sure if many of you know about him, but he is a famous marine life painter and has painted many marine life wall murals all over the world. He has a goal to paint 100 murals in 30 years. He started to painting in the early 80’s and he is up to mural 99, which is going to be painted right here in Ft. Lauderdale, my home town.

In fact, he is going to paint mural number 100 in China for the summer Olympics. Anyway, just in case any of you are going to be in Ft. Lauderdale, here is some information about his project he is starting here on June 6th….

Wyland will paint a sea life mural on the 1,000-foot-long wall on the north side of McNab Road, between Rock Island Road and Avon Lane. The 10-foot-tall buffer wall abuts the Fountains neighborhood of single-family homes.

He said he won’t decide exactly what he’ll paint until he picks up his brush, but Steve Creech, his spokesman and project director, predicted he’ll include the smaller whales that live or migrate off the Florida coast, plus dolphins, manatees, manta rays and reef fish.

I hope to go out there and see him while he is painting the mural. I will try to post some photos of before, during and after of his work. Is anyone out there into Wyland or familiar with him and his art work?
God Bless,
John

Hi All,

Here is a story we did on Sea Life Park Oahu Hawaii. It is really a great place, much better than I expected, great selection of animals, beautiful location, and friendly staff. Here is how the story starts and this story has a great detailed description of each activity at Sea Life Park.

While Strolling thru the park on Wednesday a weekday, I noticed the park was not over-crowded, the grounds of the Park was clean and well manicured. The tanks that the marine life swam in were clean and the water looked healthy like it was changed regularly. I have been to many parks and I would rate this to be an A+ Facility. While at the park from 9:00 a.m. – 9 p.m. I experienced the following activities: < Read More>

I have enjoyed most of the activities, like swimming with the dolphins and ray encounter before at other locations, but the one activity I have never done before was the Sea Trek, so read that part of the article. The Sea Trek was a lot of fun !!!

Have you guys watched the video from Sea Life Park I have put on the last blog post? You will get a good idea of the park too.
More stories are coming from Oahu.
God Bless,
John

Hi All,

Well, I have come to the finish of my trip in Oahu, Hawaii and heading back to Ft. Lauderdale. The trip was really great and there is a lot to do and see here in Oahu. The last couple of days, I went to the Leeward Coast, saw Pearl Harbor, ate in China Town, and the best part was to see the wild Spinner Dolphins in Hawaii.

I went on the Ko Olina Cat out of Ko Olina Marina and we got to see many spinner dolphins. It was really incredible and I would recommend this trip to anyone that loves dolphins in their natural habitat. I will post my story on this trip soon.

I need to run, the airport is waiting for me. Aloha!!!
John

Hi All,
Here is a video of one our customers that got engaged with the Dolphins in Miami.
What do you think?
God Bless,
John

Hi All,

I thought you would enjoy this Dolphin youtube video I saw. Many of you may have seen it already but for those that haven’t, it is really fun to watch this dolphin play with his own bubble ring.

Go to:

Click Here

What do you think of the dolphin’s ability and the video?
God Bless,
John

Hi All,

I have worked hard to try to incorporate video on the blog. It has not been easy. We use wordpress blog and I am having a hard time to add the widgets and plugins. If anyone out there has some experience in that. I hope to hear from you. Well, here are examples of what I have done so far with customers recently on my DolphinWorld YouTube account.

YouTube Video 1

YouTube Video 2

YouTube Video 3

As you can see the video quality is not the best and I am trying to improve that. Has anyone used a Flip Video Camera? I heard it was really a good video camera and easy to upload to YouTube. Has anyone out there have any suggestions to make better videos?
Happy Valentines Day!!
God Bless,
John

Hi All,

At Dolphin World we get so many request about internships and working in a dolphin facility but unfortunately we need to tell the hopeful future Dolphin Handler that Dolphin World is a tour company and we do not own any dolphins. Today, I talked with a nice intern at the Miami Seaquarium and she told me a little about herself and the internship. From my experience, many dolphin handlers do not have Marine Biology degrees but the one thing they all have in common is a love for dolphins. In fact, this intern, sorry I did not get her name, told me she graduated from Florida International University with a communication degree but loved dolphins.

She felt a strong calling to be with the dolphins and pursued that dream. She found what she needed to know from the Miami Seaquarium website. The Animal Training Internship with Marine Mammals is exactly what she wanted, good training, pay, and a great environment to be with the dolphins. This position requires the following qualification:

College degree; enrolled in college or university. Interns must be able to work full-time, 40 hours per week, for 4 months. This internship requires heavy lifting of up to 50lbs on a daily basis. Candidates must be physically fit and SCUBA certification is REQUIRED at time of application submission. There is no housing available. < Read More>

(A Dolphin Handler Training a Dolphin)

But one thing I have learned over 13 years in this business, is that you better have been with the dolphins in some sort of Dolphin Encounter program, Trained or Wild. Whether it is with Dolphin World or not, does not make a difference. Just to give an example why, one time we took a women on our Dolphin Swim Tour to the Florida Keys. All this women kept saying how much she loved dolphins and could not wait to kiss one. Well, when we got to the dolphin facility, she insisted on kissing the dolphin. The Dolphin Handler helped make her dream come true and she gave the dolphin a BIG SMOOCH on the mouth. The women jumped back with that face of disgust and spat out of her mouth because she did not realize that the dolphin was very salty and not what she expected. In fact she did not like salt water at all and it was not a very great experience for her. She was not a good candidate for a future handler. So make sure you have experienced one dolphin swim program before you go any further seeking this as a career.

Is there anyone out there, who would like to share their story of trying to be a dolphin handler? Or any words of wisdom for future dolphin handlers?

Have a great day!!
God Bless,
John