00:00I'm going to explain to you a little bit about our fantastic new dive program that we have.
00:14You can come here to dive with a dolphin and you're going to go under the water, be able
00:19to do some fun things with them.
00:21The full program is actually an hour and a half, so first of all you'll be brought to
00:24one of the orientations that we have here and one of the trainers will brief you on
00:28exactly what you will be doing with the dolphin on that day.
00:32To do the dive program you do have to be PADI certified, you have to be an open water diver.
00:36Now after your orientation you'll be brought outside, kitted up into all of your dive gear
00:41and then taken into the water.
00:43The first couple of minutes you're going to be in the shallow water area and you're just
00:47going to get to know the animal.
00:48You get to touch them, you even get to feed them a fish, which actually is the only program
00:53at Dolphin Bay where you're able to feed a fish to the dolphin as well.
00:57Then you're going to head right outside and you're going to drop down, it's a three meter
01:01depth to the bottom of the lagoon.
01:04Down there the dolphin is going to swim by so you can really feel them, you can touch
01:07them, you're going to hear them doing some vocals and then you're even going to do a
01:12kiss, a hug, a dorsal toe, which is a ride holding onto the fin from one point of the
01:17lagoon to the other under the water.
01:19It's an extremely controlled program, it's the most exclusive program that we have.
01:24It's six guests maximum that go in the water at a time with the dolphin and with those
01:29six guests we have three different trainers.
01:31We have an A trainer that's just there to take care of the dolphin, we have a B trainer
01:36that's just there to look after the guests and show them what to do and we also have
01:40a safety diver that just kind of sits back and takes a look to see if anyone needs any
01:44help at any time.
01:46Underneath the water we're actually communicating to the dolphins using hand signals, which
01:50is what we do whether we're above the water or below the water, so no communication is
01:55lost when we go down there.
01:57Everything that we ask the dolphins to do we do using our hands, they're then going
02:01to go and perform a certain behavior that we ask.
02:04Every time that they do something correct we use positive reinforcement, which can of
02:09course be fish as everyone expects, but it can also be our attention as well.
02:14Because we have this relationship with them they find our attention very rewarding, so
02:19we can give them lots of rubs, touches, we can touch them and that works under the water
02:24perfectly with them as well.
02:25So we can mix and match to make it a very positive and motivating experience for the
02:31dolphins as well as the guests.
02:37We have a number of different programs but this one is my favorite.
02:41It's completely different when you're all the way under the water and the dolphin is
02:45right there in front of you.
02:47When you're in the shallow water you kind of feel like you're meeting the dolphin on
02:50common ground.
02:51You're still half shallow, you're kind of in the water, the dive program you're completely
02:55in their world, all the way underneath the water, it's quiet, nobody's talking, it's
03:00just you, the animal, and you just come out feeling like it's been a life changing experience.
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