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Fins to Feather

by Scarlet Colley - June, 2000

Finally after six months of being away, our wonderful and favorite dolphin has come home! Our Canopener is back. I was getting concerned about her absence and wished there was some way to send out a Have You Seen This Dolphin poster along the coast. We had no idea that back in November when she spent so much time with us that she was saying good-bye and that she would be gone for over a half of a year. On June second she came home and when she greeted us we saw her with our adopted orphan dolphin named Sharkey. They remained together for over an hour as if she was having a talk with him. Sharkey is the one we have called Baby for so long. He is a whole story by himself. We wish there were some way to know exactly where our Canopener went for so long but we are so glad she is back safe and sound.

The subject of being safe and sound is one of the reasons Colley and I approach the issue of wave runners on the bay with some concern for our Dolphin families safety. We decided before we wrote about the wave runners and the damage they can do, we should get on one and see what it is like to be on the bay with one. So we called one of our local waverunner rentals and the owner Chris agreed to have his guide take us on a tour. When we arrived the guide John Ingels, greeted us and briefed us on safety and we explained that we wanted to travel over to the jetties to see our dolphin family. Of course I was curious weather they would recognize me on the wave runner instead of on our tour boat the Laguna Skimmer. John With his great big smile motioned us along the channel and seemed confident we knew where the shallow water was so we wouldn't bog down. As soon as we left the no wake area which means going slow we powered up and sped across the bay at a good clip. This of course is something Colley and I are not use to because our Skimmer is such a putz. As we approached the dolphin area John motioned us near and I was quite surprised at his keen observations, The first thing he said, which colley and I already knew was that we had to approach slowly and shut the waverunners down and then the dolphins would continue their feeding and playing comfortably.

I was so thrilled that here was a WaveRunner tour guide and he was doing everything right. Our approach was slow and when we shut down the dolphins all came around. As one came right up to us and poked his head right up out of the water to look at us John commented how the dolphins really do know Colley and I and as they kept coming around us and playing we knew they recognized us too. I could just hear them saying please tell the waverunners not to run circles over us especially with our babies here. This is the problem we are having on the bay with the waverunners that are not part of a guided tour like the one we were on with John. As we sat there quietly among some of the dolphin watch boats we could see how as a waverunner race nearby the dolphin quickly went under and stayed that way until the waverunners passedby. The worse thing the waverunner can do is to race around and around in the area the dolphins are feeding . The area at the jetties should be an access to the gulf with no circling and spinning around with the waverunners in the dolphin feeding areas. There should be designated areas for this type of waverunning.

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