2026 February: Dolphin Research Center

 5 February 2026

For the Florida Keys, the weather has been less than ideal. Today our friends, Cathy and Franklin, are coming to visit for a few days and the weather is not what we hoped for. We continue to have the cooler-than-usual temperatures with strong, gusty north winds. The boats continue to rock and bounce with the wind gusts and resultant wave action. Cathy and Franklin had a rather long drive from Vero Beach with periodic rain along the way. We had just a brief shower, so we mostly stayed chilly but dry.

They arrived mid-afternoon. They got settled into the guest stateroom; we chatted for a while; and then we walked the short distance to the "El Siboney Overseas" restaurant for dinner. 

As we walked by the Marina Club House, we noticed the iguanas lying on the concrete windowsills trying to stay warm in the cold weather. At around 40 degrees or so, an iguana will go into a comatose state and fall out of trees. At least lying on the windowsill, they wouldn't be dropping out of the sky,

The restaurant serves Cuban food, and we hoped it would meet with our guests' approval. 

Pictures shown on the walls at the restaurant ...

After dinner at El Siboney we went to Publix to get ice cream and had dessert on the boat. Cathy brought a selection of foods with her, so we had homemade brownies with our ice cream.

6 February 2026

Given today's weather, we had a bit of a decision to make regarding how we would spend our time. After considering and tossing out several options, we chose something we hoped would be out of the wind. We jumped into their car to go to the Dolphin Research Center (a real treat to have a car). 

We read that if we bought tickets online we would get $3 off per ticket, so we paid $33 per person for admission. None of us had been there before. We all enjoyed it, and if I can get my grandkids to visit, I am sure they would love the experience as well.

this is the place!

Statue in Parking Lot

Dolphin Research Center 
Mailbox in Parking Lot
(Dive tank that opens for mail)

At the entrance to the exhibits ...

"We realize that what we are accomplishing
is a drop in the ocean
but if this drop were not in the ocean
it would be missed."
Mother Teresa

Schedule of Events

We arrived around 12:30 and headed off to the "Back Lagoons" to watch the "New Training" program. Along the way we passed the seals basking in the sun and frolicking in the water.

Seal Statue

"Lazy bones"

When the food came around, the seals got down to business performing "tricks" for their meal.

"Bark, bark, bark"

"Now he's awake!"

When the tricks and rewards were done, it was back to dozing in the sun.

Of course the main attraction at the Dolphin Research Center is the dolphins, and we saw plenty of those. They have some new additions as a center in Miami recently closed and shipped their animals to various other centers. Some are still adapting to their new surroundings. One such is blind, and they put a softer dock in his "pool" so he wouldn't hurt himself bumping into it. 

Dolphin Statue

The center has a number of "chambers" for the dolphins. The material dividing the sections is dolphin safe and breaks away if a dolphin wants to get out. 

Subdivided pens

Freedom is close, but why leave?

Normally they do not want to leave because they are being fed to interact with people, so they are having fun and getting paid in fish to enjoy themselves. One dolphin, however, decided that he wanted to be with two of his friends, and one day the staff found him in a different pen than usual. They left him where he chose to be.

Males are penned separately from females. The instructor said that the guys like to flirt with the girls.

We watched a couple of the instructional sessions with an announcer explaining the training exercises as they happened. 

Chilly day; dressed accordingly

Multiple trainers appeared at multiple stations. The trainers insert symbols into the water; the dolphins "read" them to know which station to report to. The trainers use whistles and hand signals to tell the dolphins what they wish them to do. They rely on the older dolphins to help teach the younger ones what the whistles and hand signals mean.

2 different stations; 2 dolphins each

Shake hands!

Go jump!

Listen carefully!

Float on your back!

Walk on water!

When folks sign their kids up to get into the Florida water with the dolphins, they are not expecting the temperatures to be in the 60s. The experience of interacting with the dolphins is very expensive (my opinion). Having paid the money and gotten excited about interacting with a dolphin, it would be hard to change one's mind, but I don't know how these kids could enjoy freezing as they stood in the water watching the dolphins do tricks.

The children were told what hand signals to give to instruct the dolphin.

Excited faces on the kids! Ooooooh!

"Do a 'handstand'"

Instead of going in the water, the girl below opted to "paint" with the dolphin. They put a pen-like object in the dolphins mouth, held the board over its head, and waited to see what turned out as a picture. Cathy suggested they should sell the Dolphin Art in the gift shop.

Painting with a dolphin

After seeing many demos reflecting the intelligence of dolphins, we walked up to the main building to see a presentation on "Native and Invasive Species" of animals and plants. 

We saw some of those invasive species hanging out near the pools, i.e. we found iguanas lurking in the bushes.

We learned that "Fred", the Australian pine tree on Route 1, is invasive to the area with exceedingly strong roots that kill off neighboring vegetation. Fortunately, those strong roots keep Fred from blowing away in hurricanes, and there is no other vegetation on the bridge to be harmed by his tenaciousness.  There are various theories, but no one is quite sure how Fred got here.

Invasive species Fred (with Wilma) 

Clark took a number of videos at the research center.

Instructor explaining dolphin showing off tricks ...

"Swim like a shark ..."

"Have a splash fight with the kids" ...

"Jump!"

Visiting the center was a great experience and worth the price of entry as the center is non-profit, and the fun education sessions were well worth the visit. Perhaps we would have stayed longer had the weather been better, but by 3:00, we were ready to leave.

As we drove west back towards the marina, I remembered that today, being Friday, the San Pablo Catholic church had their weekly Farmer's Market underway. We decided to stop and browse the booths. A large number of vendors participate in this weekly event. (Canceled last week due to inclement (windy) weather.)

Lots of booths located on church property

Intricate, beaded earrings

Metal Sea Animals

Ceramic Colorful Turtles

Sparkling Handbags

Carved Wood

Fish hook earrings (hooks removed)

 

Whirligigs

And amazingly enough, the Farmer's Market actual had fruits and veggies as well as various other food items (nuts, jellies, spreads / dips, and such).