Spinner dolphins follow our boat

The day after Christmas as the early morning sun was peaking over the Sierra Madre mountains we were some 7 miles off shore from a little surfing town called  Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Paco, Paula, Mike and myself rented a fishing boat with grand notions of landing the big fish, Tuna, Sailfish, Mahi Mahi and Marlin. In our search for the big fish we kept a look out for dolphin and birds, hoping they would lead us to some good fishing. About an hour or so into the trip we saw some water splashing off in the distance and steered the boat straight for it. As we approached we saw that the splashing was from dolphins, actually several hundred dolphins. We were completely surrounded by several hundred Spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris). To say this experience was spectacular is an understatement. Now I’m no John Irving and can’t paint  pictures with words but this was a  ‘wow , I can’t believe this is happening’ experience. When I say surrounded there was no gap in the water without dolphin. They were so close to the boat that the spray from their blowhole could easily mist your face and you could  see dolphin jumping and spinning as far as the eye could see.

SPINNER DOLPHINS YOUTUBE VIDEO

At first it was difficult to take it all in, to understand what we were seeing as there was so much dolphin action. Your eyes kept jumping from one jump to the next. There were dolphin jumping, spinning, flipping, tail splashing, bow riding, boat following. The aerials took your breath away.  Spinner dolphins certainly are the definition of beauty and grace. The spins frequently had at least 3 1/2 turns with an occasional back flip thrown in for good measure. They were made up of all sorts of configurations that as a tursiops dolphin trainer I honestly never thought a dolphin could do. In fact I’m sure that if our Atlantic bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) could have witnessed the spinners they would have been just as amazed at their speed, agility and perpetual motion as I was.

And the babies! There were calves everywhere. The calves were just as active as the adults, baby jumping, spinning and flipping. Once your eyes began to adjust to so much movement you could hear them too, squeaks and whistles. The action never stopped, dolphins spinning and jumping seemingly forever. Why do spinners spin and jump and in general carry on? I don’t know, some people say for communication, to dislodge parasites, but to us, it looked like they did it for shear pleasure.

Spinner dolphins follow and spin

Spinner dolphins are a smaller dolphin with long slender rostrums and this pod was completely gray in color, both dorsal and ventral. Our guide told us that the males had a kind of backward dorsal fin where the curve is forward, toward the head. I had never heard of this before but it was very true, we saw dolphin with this unfamiliar dorsal fin shape. We also saw several dolphins with dorsal fins that were folded over and some that looked like the dorsal was completely cut off. Also very striking was that we saw not a rake mark in the bunch.

Spinner dolphins spinning and jumping

After an hour or so of taking a gazillion photos and video the boat Capitan persuaded us we had to head back toward shore. None of us wanted to leave. On the way back we saw Pacific green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) mating, spotted eagle rays (Myliobatis sp.) jumping and spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata) that were so shy they would ride the bow of the boat for only a few seconds and then vanish as quickly as they appeared.

I’m thankful to Paco and Paula for not only sharing the experience with us but also for sharing their great video. I’m extremely grateful that all of us walked away that afternoon with a huge appreciation of what we had just experienced. I’m also very thankful to my husband Mike for inspiring us to book the fishing trip. Which reminds me, what happened to the fish? I had never seen a bunch of people so happy after not catching any fish.  Guess we forgot all about them once we shared our lives for a brief moment with surely one of the coolest species on the planet. .

8 year old drawing after swim with dolphin at Dolphin Discovery

Understanding the Dream Stealers

‘Hey, Ms. trainer, when you gonna get a real job?’ Sound familiar? For many of my colleagues and myself we heard this all throughout our careers as animal trainers. Mostly we heard this from those closest to us, our family! Training Flipper was not seen as a profession, it was a summer job at best. They hoped that soon we would tire of playing with dolphin, whales and sea lions and come to the realization that hey, maybe we should shake off this animal thing and get a real job. At the ABC Dolphin Trainer Academy we call these people the dream stealers. We don’t talk about them in a negative way, no; after all we are usually talking about your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and grandparents. Rather we focus on not changing their minds but rather we focus on you, the student and what you can do to make your dream a reality.

To be fair our families only wanted what was best for us and they simply couldn’t understand how training animals could be a respectable profession. And the money, I need to be honest; I don’t know one trainer who began their career for the financial rewards. Trainers usually begin their careers with passion. Passion for the animals, passion for the environment and passion to make a better world. I call this the honeymoon stage. Why? Because animal training is a real job! It’s not all fun and games. It can be difficult, strenuous work. Trainers work long hours, work outside in all weather, spend much of the day wet and every aspect of the job is heavy. Atlantic bottlenose dolphin eat anywhere from 10 to 40 lbs of fish a day- multiply that by how many animals at the facility and that’s a lot of fish to move around. An average dolphin weighs between 300 to 500 lbs., add on the weight of transport equipment and your talking upwards to 700 lbs. to be carried.

Mario and Pepe training session in Dolphin Discovery Puerto Vallarta

There are lots of rewards however, and it is precisely that passion that motivates us. It really is a powerful experience knowing you are responsible for making positive influences in the quality of the animals’ lives. It’s a special accomplishment to be an integral part of the animal/trainer learning process. And how about the feeling you get when you touch someone else’s life for the positive? It can be something as simple and wondrous as a smile on a child’s face or knowing that you are an important part educating the public about conservation awareness and environmental issues.

So dream on friend, go for what you want, just make sure you go at in an intelligent thoughtful manner. Don’t let the dream stealers take anything away from you.

Happy Training!

Shelley