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Dolphins Have Sex for Fun
April 28th, 2009 | Stephen Bailey
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…and other fun dolphin facts
I started my morning with my only complaint about the hotel where I was staying (The Inn at Key West). I had requested a wake-up call for Room 141 at 7:15 am. Instead, my phone startled me out of a typically light sleep at 1:41 am. It took me a good two hours to fall back to sleep.
Why the early call? I was heading out on yet another new adventure. Boating with the dolphins. Yep, boating … not swimming. It is actually illegal in the US to swim with wild dolphins. If someone tries to sell you tickets for such an outing, be forewarned, it is a scam.
Breakfast was an order of tasty Cuban toast with cheese from a new, Russian-owned joint called Key West Munchies. At 8:30 or so in the morning, I boarded the Dolphin Cat, a small, fast catamaran en route to see some dolphins in their natural habitat. Also on the schedule would be snorkeling.
The one and only exception to the no swimming laws would be if you were already in the water and a dolphin swam up to you. You are not allowed to jump in if you see a dolphin.
There are about 250 wild dolphins living in this area between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. They are quite curious creatures and will often come very close to the boats to check them out. They've become accustomed to the sightseers and can be quite tolerant. However, they will show their displeasure by slapping their tail fins or exhaling violently.
We were lucky and saw quite a number of dolphins swimming, hunting, playing and even sleeping. Along the way, I learned some interesting facts about them as well. For example, dolphins don't usually dive very deep and tend to live in shallow water.
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Dolphins Have Sex for Fun
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