Dolphins & Humpback Whales

My wife and I caught the “swim with the dolphin” bug several years ago. It started with a dolphin swim program at an enclosed facility in the Bahamas. Before I entered the water I had the though that I wanted to dive with the dolphin. In captivity dolphins are trained to allow people to touch them. Once in the water a dolphin came over to me and I put my hand on her side and she immediately went to the bottom with me. When I needed to breath she came up, I took a breath and down we went again. This happened 5 times until I was totally spent, released our connection and lay on the surface gasping for breath, and amazed at what just happened.

I was hooked. I participated as a therapist in dolphin assisted therapy programs, and through various resources learned what science had to say about their anatomy and vast acoustic transmission and reception abilities.

My next question was; what is it like to swim with them in the open ocean. My Jana and I went to the Island of Bimini to be part of a program which involved taking a boat out to an area where dolphins come in to sleep. Being conscious breathers they keep half of their brain awake while the other half rests then switch sides. This is a time, when they move slower and socialize. They chose a place where they can more easily watch for predators like a long flat sandy area that isn’t too deep. Over the five days there were various combinations of people going out to participate in the swim. I noticed that the respect or lack there of for the dolphins correlated with their willingness to interact with us.  There was one day in particular that there was only three of us on the boat and we had indescribable experiences that cause me to question the definition of intelligence, social harmony and where these creatures are on the evolutionary scale.

Next we went to Hawaii, because we learned that people were swimming with dolphins on a regular basis. We discovered that it wasn’t regular, but the encounters were always inspirational. We went back the next year and had many more experiences that are difficult to describe in words.

We have made a few dear friends on the island. One of which we have remained on regular contact. She swims with dolphins nearly daily, year round and has shared with us that last year humpback whales were coming in the bay where we swam with dolphins the past years and she had several close encounters, of divine nature, swimming with them. This year they are staying to the north of the island. She on occasions would take a kayak out to be with them. She has lived on the island for most of her life and is becoming more and more concerned for the whales and dolphins as more people are joining this trend to swim with them. The ocean is their home where they eat, sleep, and procreate, and if they are constantly  making allowances for our unconscious behavior, their health is in jeopardy.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to experience the dolphin’s world. My experience has reinforced in me the need to respect nature and to protect it from our ignorance.