Dolphin Swim Australia Moves With The Times…

DSA would like to advise all clients that the AMVE has changed its dolphin swim program time from 8am-12pm to the new and totally wild time of 6am -10am.

Andrew and Frank have monitored closely our Port Stephens dolphin swim and the behavior of our dolphin friends and have chosen a new time slot for our dolphin swim. The reasons for our change are:

Dawn is the time the ocean is most alive! To have the opportunity to sail into the deep blue as the sun is rising is one of the most beautiful and amazing gifts. It is this time of the morning where the ocean shifts gears, night time feeding is coming to an end with a huge finale’.
Dolphin numbers and locations are more predictable. Their behavior appears most conducive to our dolphin swim as they really seem more excited when we are around early in the morning.

The wind is often light offshore that early in the mornin which make the sea calmer and an overall quieter place. The light coming through the water at dawn makes the deep ocean a magical and wondrous place with shafts of light dancing through the biosphere and the dolphins. The beautiful Short Beaked Common Dolphin, the way they dance and weave coming to join in the fun on the bow with the crazy humans is simply sensational.

Our new calendar is up on line and available with weekend trips right through till April 2011 (more to come)

Our intention was to run our dolphin swim Australia program right through our cooler months. As we operate in the “Whale Highway” at Port Stephens NSW, we were absolutely certain of some close encounters with the dolphins larger cousins the mighty Humpback Whale:) However after several ‘trials’ we have determined that the weather is just too cold to really enjoy our in water dolphin swim experience. We are still available for hardy groups who may want this challenge, though weekend dolphin swim bookings have been removed from the calendar from June – early September. New dolphin swimming season is September – May yearly.

New times
5:30am on the Dock ready to be fitted in your wetsuit
5:45am Embark Imagine, grab a coffee or a cup of soup and get ready
6:00ambriefing begins and departure for the Blue Water Wonderland Dolphin Encounter
10:00am return to dock C

BOOK NOW for the MOST exciting extreme dolphin swim on the planet.
Or call Andrew 1300721358 and he’ll walk you through the process or answer any question you may have.

See you soon

Andrew Parker
Divemaster / Director
Dolphin Swim Australia
0438444500
www.dolphinswimaustralia.com.au

Aquatic Marine Viewing Experience
” A breakthrough in Dolphin / Human interaction”

Dolphin Swim Australia, the first licensed dolphin swim in New South Wales recently played host to the crew from Channel Nine’s award winning travel show Getaway.

On a beautiful sunny Tuesday in March, presenter Jason Dundas and the Getaway film crew headed to the Blue Water wonderland of Port Stephens to try out NSW’s newest tourist attraction the A.M.V.E (aquatic marine viewing experience)

Arriving bright and early on a special midweek program, it wasn’t long before the team were setting sail offshore deep into the heart of the Port Stephens / Great lakes marine park to meet the resident cheeky Pacific Common dolphins on their own turf.

About one mile from the national park site now called Broughton Island and nearly three miles offshore, right at the base of the ‘gravel patch’ a pod of about 10-12 individuals found our boat. After we observed and understood their behavior for about 30 minutes, and keeping a respectful distance during that time (the dolphins were feeding) the dolphins completed their morning feast and excitedly joined us on the bow of our luxury catamaran “Imagine” ready to play.

Dolphins want us in the water with them

Captain Frank Future, in the words of my son “the bestest captain in the world” kept us on track for over an hour as the dolphin engaged our vessel time and again, allowing us plenty of in-water fun.

On our second trip in the water the dolphins began to really get inquisitive. Coming from underneath and from each side they ventured closer and closer to our team as we cruised along, safely harnessed and out of their way between the bows of Imagine.

When a dolphin is riding with you on the bow and he/she is relaxed they often poo. I know this sounds disgusting, however it is the height of dolphin etiquette. When a dolphin feels comfortable around others, this is the way they share a little about themselves. Dolphins do not drink salt water, their throats are clamped by a strong muscle that squeeze their food without allowing salt water to penetrate their gut. All their fresh water is therefore derived from their food.

Dolphins tongues sealed away from their stomachs, are used to test their environment. They have ‘receptor’ sites on their tongues, these sites are highly tuned and they use their tongues to ‘taste’ their environment. A dolphin might if comfortable, give a the lot of information about themselves to another through their ‘fishy’ waste. Jason was amazed at the closeness of the dolphins and while sitting in the boom net asked what was the ‘turbo’ cloud following a couple of the dolphins?

In water action

He laughed when I told him he was just pooed on. Though was amazed to find that it usually means the dolphin likes you enough to want to share that part of themselves. It is a funny and quite amazing moment and may be on the show.

Our new year long program schedule has just gone up on line www.dolphinswimaustralia.com.au

Our program has a new time slot of:

6:00 am – 10am (5:30 on the dock)

This is the time of day when the dolphins seem to be most playful and the ocean most alive.

BOOK NOW and Come and join us this weekend for “extreme” dolphin swimming.

AMVE a world first breakthrough in Dolphin / Human interaction.

Don’t miss Getaway Thursday night 22nd April

Andrew Parker & Jason Dundas Getaway does dolphin swimming

Dolphin Swim Australia launched the first permitted commercial dolphin swim ever New South Wales on Saturday the 27th February 2010.

Billed as a ‘breakthrough in Dolphin / Human interaction’ the Aquatic Marine Viewing Experience (A.M.V.E) has dolphin enthusiasts lining up to enjoy an in water dolphin swimming experience right here in Port Stephens.

The brainchild of Director Andrew Parker of local adventure training company DolphCom Solutions and Frank Future, leading spokesman for the whale and dolphin watch community and experienced captain of the luxury ocean catamaran “Imagine” Dolphin Swim Australia commenced operations with a fully booked series of three trials that went off without a hitch last Saturday.

“Well that was absolutely amazing” said lead reporter for NBN news Ms Madeleine Bond who went on to say that “I have my fair share of whale and dolphin watch cruises under my belt and that was something else” she said.

Dolphin swimming is something new to New South Wales, being the only state without an existing swim with dolphins program made it more than a little difficult for the managing directors of Dolphin Swim Australia Andrew Parker and Frank Future to obtain the permit. Three years of hard work has finally paid off.

“We are funding the most comprehensive migratory and distribution study of the Short beaked Pacific Common Dolphins ever held in this part of the world”, Andrew said. “We intend to learn a lot more about this little known and vast ranging pelagic species, hoping to assist Marine Parks to protect and preserve the dolphins through our contribution to science via commerce”.

“We also intend to prove that the swim with dolphins program we have designed has no negative impact on this species. Every person who attends one of our programs will not only enjoy the experience of a lifetime they will contribute to the preservation, through science of this wonderful creature” Frank Future said.

Join Dolphin Swim Australia on the AMVE NOW…