We recently had the opportunity to board an eco-tour and be dolphin researchers for a morning and it was such an amazing experience. As a homeschool mom, I look for outings that allow my children to be students in the real world and see adults in real life science careers. Our eco-tour with the crew of Dolphin Quest was not only dolphin watching but it was a complete marine biology excursion. We learned all about marine mammals and got to ask as many questions as we could think of! We learned about a dolphins diet, lifecycle, pod communication, interesting behaviors and so much more. The boat is equipped with a hydrophone that let us in on the dolphins underwater communication, it was so fun to listen to their speech patterns and clicks!
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I wasn't quite sure how many dolphins we would see during the tour, but the dolphin sighting was nearly constant. We were able to view the dolphins almost the whole time and if we weren't watching them, we were listening to them via the hydrophone. This tour is one of a kind because of the dolphin research they have done and the data they have collected on the local dolphins. The crew provided us with a "Fin Book" to browse. The Fin Book is used to identify, track and study each individual dolphin. We learned that a dolphin's fin is unique to each dolphin and therefore one of the best ways to identify dolphins. And since the crew had already been tracking and documenting the dolphins, they were able to teach us many fun and interesting facts about each dolphins behaviors and life!
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We had such a fun day out on the water! Dolphin Quest is starting up a new Homeschool Eco Tour program, one for sea turtle education and one for dolphin education. I highly recommend this to any classroom field trip or enrichment for homeschool families!
Contact information:
info@boattoursjohnspass.com // 727-423-7824 // 140 Boardwalk Place West, Madeira Beach, FL 33708
