Gulf News goes underwater to try the latest interactive diving experience on offer at Atlantis, The Palm. Marine mammal specialist Lauren Crank takes us through the Dolphin Scuba programme at the Al Boom Diving Centre at Dolphin Bay. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm going to explain to you a little bit about our fantastic new dive program that we have.
00:14You can come here to dive with a dolphin and you're going to go under the water, be able
00:19to do some fun things with them.
00:21The full program is actually an hour and a half, so first of all you'll be brought to
00:24one of the orientations that we have here and one of the trainers will brief you on
00:28exactly what you will be doing with the dolphin on that day.
00:32To do the dive program you do have to be PADI certified, you have to be an open water diver.
00:36Now after your orientation you'll be brought outside, kitted up into all of your dive gear
00:41and then taken into the water.
00:43The first couple of minutes you're going to be in the shallow water area and you're just
00:47going to get to know the animal.
00:48You get to touch them, you even get to feed them a fish, which actually is the only program
00:53at Dolphin Bay where you're able to feed a fish to the dolphin as well.
00:57Then you're going to head right outside and you're going to drop down, it's a three meter
01:01depth to the bottom of the lagoon.
01:04Down there the dolphin is going to swim by so you can really feel them, you can touch
01:07them, you're going to hear them doing some vocals and then you're even going to do a
01:12kiss, a hug, a dorsal toe, which is a ride holding onto the fin from one point of the
01:17lagoon to the other under the water.
01:19It's an extremely controlled program, it's the most exclusive program that we have.
01:24It's six guests maximum that go in the water at a time with the dolphin and with those
01:29six guests we have three different trainers.
01:31We have an A trainer that's just there to take care of the dolphin, we have a B trainer
01:36that's just there to look after the guests and show them what to do and we also have
01:40a safety diver that just kind of sits back and takes a look to see if anyone needs any
01:44help at any time.
01:46Underneath the water we're actually communicating to the dolphins using hand signals, which
01:50is what we do whether we're above the water or below the water, so no communication is
01:55lost when we go down there.
01:57Everything that we ask the dolphins to do we do using our hands, they're then going
02:01to go and perform a certain behavior that we ask.
02:04Every time that they do something correct we use positive reinforcement, which can of
02:09course be fish as everyone expects, but it can also be our attention as well.
02:14Because we have this relationship with them they find our attention very rewarding, so
02:19we can give them lots of rubs, touches, we can touch them and that works under the water
02:24perfectly with them as well.
02:25So we can mix and match to make it a very positive and motivating experience for the
02:31dolphins as well as the guests.
02:37We have a number of different programs but this one is my favorite.
02:41It's completely different when you're all the way under the water and the dolphin is
02:45right there in front of you.
02:47When you're in the shallow water you kind of feel like you're meeting the dolphin on
02:50common ground.
02:51You're still half shallow, you're kind of in the water, the dive program you're completely
02:55in their world, all the way underneath the water, it's quiet, nobody's talking, it's
03:00just you, the animal, and you just come out feeling like it's been a life changing experience.