Keep adding trainers to the "Who Are They?" game.

Merina recently swam with a very nervous little boy and was able to make him feel comfortable by slowly swimming around him and offering her dorsal fin, making sure to go his pace.

Aleta and Merina are usually the first two to bring a gift if someone is nervous and unsure. Even if people don’t want to get close to them, they still help them feel involved. 

Merina and Pandora are the queens of creativity! They both have been enjoying adlibbing and keeping their trainers guessing on what they could do next!

Calusa, Merina, and Santini loved welcoming everyone who visited us for the spring break season!

Aleta, Cayo and Merina have been perfecting some of their husbandry behaviors. Merina practices her eye drops everyday, Cayo her water behavior and Aleta has been working on her ultrasound layouts.

Merina’s 2025 Resolution: To beat my sister in achieving perfection!

Merina and Santini are thriving in their matriarchal roles as they lead our “super pod”. We recently moved all 16 ladies and Ranger together and the older girls are doing a great job leading everyone, as always.

Cacica has decided that she likes to be grouped with Merina and Santini, the older ladies. These three became a trio in the last month as the older girls took Cacica under their wing and gave her dolphin guidance.

Merina and Talon have particularly had fun playing with the DESY (Dolphin Enrichment System), an enrichment device that they can play with without trainers to make it release jello, ice, etc. Talon was recently so excited when he got it to do something that he spun in really fast circles. Merina was proud of herself for figuring it out, she ate all the jello before any of the other dolphins noticed.

As our two official grandma’s, Merina and Tursi could not be sweeter to the little baby girls. They can often be seen swimming and tagging along with the other moms as they offer grandmotherly support. In sessions they are both very patient and understand that the babies are getting their turn to learn.

The perfect examples of “strong, independent” females. Calusa and Merina both keep the status quo in a lagoon, and all of the other dolphins will follow their lead. They can be seen correcting the younger dolphins but also being examples for them to follow.

Stepping into adoptive mom and grandma roles has been where these ladies are shining recently. Aleta has fully stepped into the adoptive mom role for Bowie, she is the first one to show Bowie the ropes or to give her corrective guidance. Merina is incredibly patient with Morada as they share the dock. She willingly serves as an example for anything Morada may be learning.