Swimming with Dolpins

Is there any place in Kauai that has Swimming with the Dolpins for kids.

Swimming with Dolpins

Captive dolphin programs are illegal on Kauai (and Maui).

Swimming with Dolpins

Bedo,

The dolphins, and other marine life on Kauai, are all free to roam throughout our wide open coastal waters.

What you might do, is book a morning Napali trip, and they will be able to see spinner dolphins cavorting around the boat....close up.

Absolutely, no CAPTIVE dolphin programs on Kauai. You need to go to the big island to see that. Not sure about Oahu.

Here you are able to experience our sea life in their natural state.

And , sometimes those happy rascals think they are on stage, and put on great performances, jumping, spinning, and leaping.

There are several Napali Boat Operators....GO ON THE EARLIER tours. Most are about 5 hours, and the whole experience is great !

Denny

I agree with the Napali boat tour idea. We had more spinner dolphins than I could count all around our catamaran at all times.

Hi. I%26#39;m not sure if this applies here but reading the posts of the link below made me rethink about boat trips involving dolphins. I am happy for folks here to educate me if I have it all wrong.

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g29217-i268-k95511鈥?/a>

nervymare,

thanks for reposting my link.

There%26#39;s plenty of scientific evidence that our dolphin population has become highly disturbed by too much impact from humans. As the Journal article interviews explain, the traditional Hawaiian way is to LEAVE THE DOLPHINS ALONE.

If dolphins come to play near you, that is one thing, but there%26#39;s a fine line between accidentally being in the right place and being on a tour that purposefully goes into a dolphin habitat and then claims the dolphins came to the boat. They are getting around the law that forbids chasing dolphins, but they can still cause harm.

Unless people wake up and stop thinking of their own selfish needs, we won%26#39;t have dolphins here any more. bedo, I am not at all saying your idea is knowingly selfish, but I hope you would read the article on how swimming with dolphins causes them harm and would choose not to pursue it.

There are captive bottlenose dolphins (not spinners) at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. The interactive/swimming times are extremely limited and the people who care for the dolphins are quite dedicated. There are not enough swimming places for all the guests who want them, but anyone is welcome to watch the handlers bring them out into view, even the general public.

www.hawaiiislandjournal.com/2006/1230c.html

This is the direct link to the recent article in Hawaii Island Journal on the problems with dolphin encounters. It%26#39;s a good read; it presents various sides, but best of all it explains the dolphin life and what they need from our waters.

Of great importance to my mind, they interview Native Hawaiians and allow them to express their distress and why they feel tourists seeking out dolphins are disrespecting fundamental Hawaiian beliefs and practices in a big way.

my interpretation is that bedo wants his kids to swim and take pix of the dolphins like they do at the Hilton Waikaloa on the Big Island.

to my knowledge, although i am not an expert, i am not aware of any luxury hotels on Maui that offer this.

if I misinterpreted the question posed, my apologies.

yes, I thought that too, but as the answer was NO, isn%26#39;t aren%26#39;t any such place on Kaua%26#39;i, the comments turned towards the spinner dolphins, and unfortunately there are numerous activity businesses that promote the chance to swim with dolphins in the wild.

And as I said, even if you come to the Hilton on the BI there is no guarantee for the kids because there%26#39;s a guest lottery.

Here are a few websites that address the issue of swimming with dolphins in captvity. I always encourage anyone interested in swimming with captive dolphins to consider these perspectives:

www.wspa-usa.org/pages/268_dolphin_facts.cfm

hsus.org/marine_mammals/鈥?/a>

marineconnection.org/campaigns/captivity_swi鈥?/a>

bellman, thanks for those links ... I%26#39;m reading the info now.

I%26#39;m not one who cries easily, but some of what I just read brought tears to my eyes.

I have met a couple of people who work with Dolphinquest at the Hilton, and I know them to be kind people who care about the dolphins, but of course they are not in a position to change a bad system, only to be as caring as they can within the parameters of a system that forces a sad unnatural life on wild creatures.

This paragraph caught my eye, something to think of when you seek out a captive dolphin encounter:

';Untold numbers of dolphins die during the notoriously violent wild captures. These captures are carried out in secret - far from the public%26#39;s eye - so obtaining an accurate number of dolphins killed is nearly impossible. What we do know is that of those dolphins that survive the capture and are brought into captivity, 53% will die within their first 3 months in a tank. Every seven years, half of all captive dolphins die due to the violence of their capture, intestinal disease, chlorine poisoning and stress-related illness. To the captivity industry, these numbers are accepted as standard operating expenses, but if this information was printed on SWTD brochures, it is unlikely that any person who cares about dolphins would purchase a ticket. ';

change my eyebrow shape