Understanding #Dolphins

UNDERSTANDING DOLPHINS

The life experience one gains from years of being around and engaging the magnificent Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin lasts a lifetime. The main character in my book, Five Miles Deep, is Marina Victoria, the queen of a people that arrived on earth before the dawn of man. Marina uses the intelligence of the Bottlenosed Dolphins in her quest to rescue her people.

In studies made by the U.S. Navy, dolphins were trained to find and recognize underwater mines and explosive devices so naval divers could disarm enemy explosives and save lives of sailors and their ships from certain destruction. Dolphins have, with or without training, saved many lives of sailors, and swimmers from deadly shark attacks.

In the past, my partners in the attractions that we owned in Cape Coral, Florida and in Townsend, Tennessee had dolphin and sea lion shows, in conjunction with our water ski shows and the Waltzing Waters shows. I was invited along to help capture and train dolphins that we used in the shows. The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 mandated the method and means of treating the animals we captured, and they were safe and unharmed at all times. That was not always the case with the humans involved with the capture, however.

One such case was a fully uniformed Florida Marine Patrol officer who was assigned to accompany us on a dolphin catch in the waters of Pine Island Sound of the Coast of Useppa Island in Lee County, Florida. The officer stayed out of the way when we brought a young male dolphin along side the boat, secured him on the lifting sling to bring him on board. We had the animal out of the water when the officer decided he wanted to help. He wrapped his arms around the dolphin about a foot ahead of his tail flukes.

Jack Scarpuzzi, our dolphin trainer hollered at the officer, “Don’t grab him there...” when the dolphin flipped the two-hundred pound officer about 10 yards into the water and the weight of his gear and guns began pulling him down. We had to drop the dolphin and set him free in order to rescue the drowning officer.

Later in the day, we captured two more dolphins and brought them back for training in the shows. Dolphins love being fed fresh fish and reward us with the way they play. We don’t really train them to jump, flip or retrieve items. They do that naturally. We just teach them to read clocks so they know when it is show time. They perform for the attention and affection we share. Mealtime is for eating, not as a reward for performing. Thanks to the trainers at Sea World, marine mammal behavior and biology has provided us with a wealth of knowledge about the Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins. Dolphins

are an awesome animal to share the planet with. Their intelligence has been measured at the level of a middle-schooler.

Have Your Ever Seen Water Dance?

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN WATER DANCE?

Once upon a time, in Berlin, Germany there was a man named Otto who, in 1939, put a musical water fountain together on a stage, and with a series of pumps, levers, electrical switches and bright lights, created the first “Waltzing Waters.”

Today, in Cape Coral, Florida, Otto’s grandson is doing the same thing. Michael Przystawik grew up in the musical fountain entertainment business. His father, Gunther, and Otto before him created the first and most sophisticated musical, lighted fountains that danced, swirled and swayed to Broadway Show Tunes. Michael has made technical improvements that have brought the fountains into the modern world of jazz, rock and contemporary music. His fountains, some of them over 150 feet wide and sending colorful plumes of water nearly 100 feet in the air to perfectly timed music are now located in many cities and parks around the world.

I recently wrote a book called Dying Dreams. It is a fictional story of a man who dies and enters the “spirit world.” When his children honor his memory by building a park and having Michael install the latest edition of a Waltzing Waters musical fountain, the spirit of their deceased father crosses the mist of the waters as a “portal” to communicate with his mortal family.

For the past forty years I have been associated with Michael’s father, and now Michael, where I have had the opportunity to see his shows hundreds of times. I have heard the comments that have come from the audiences who witness the shows. Many people have been mesmerized and transfixed on the beauty and tranquility they experience while watching something as simple as water “dancing,” and reflect on how they wish their departed loved ones would have liked to see that, and even imagine their faces appearing in the fading mist.

And now, as the future of one of America’s minor entertainment treasures contemplates the future, a possible opportunity exists for the “Water that Dances.” Last week, on April 12, the Waltzing Waters showcased the Hall of Fame induction for the USA Water Ski Foundation held at The Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, Florida. Thanks to the generosity of Kermit Weeks, owner of Fantasy of Flight who hosted the occasion alluding to the possibility that the Waltzing Waters may figure into the plan for something huge, something on a grand scale that he is planning for the property he owns at exit 44 along the Interstate 4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando.

Good things take time and great things take even more time. But, let us hope that some of Kermit’s plans materialize in my lifetime so that I don’t have to be watching the progress through the mist of Waltzing Waters. I love it when a plan comes together.