Even while watching the beautiful sun rise your focus is on the what is to come, seeing the dolphins. However, the first thing that always appear are the pelicans. The pelicans learned that if they show up they could get food by stealing it from the dolphins, so now they are fed separately from the dolphins so it is easier for the park officials. They are actually pretty interesting to watch getting fed, you even get to see them hunting fish while you wait for the dolphins to arrive. The first picture shows one shooting below the water after fish. After a while you see the first dolphins coming in to the bay. At first they stay a little way out. Next a park official comes down into the water & starts giving general information about the dolphins. At this point they come in closer, they know the people it is easy to see & they trust them. It takes a while for all the dolphins to come in, usually there is 4 but there can be from 2-6. While this happens the park officials get into the history or the place & the conduct they expect from the people who get to feed the dolphins. They only feed the female dolphins & not the baby dolphins, the adults have them stay a little out. Dolphins are only fed 3-4 times a day & only 3 fish at a time to assure that it accounts for no more than 30% of the dolphins daily need, so they don't become dependent on the meals & continue to hunt. They have evolved quite a bit as this all started with a few people feeding dolphins of a boat, then they worked them onto the beach. It was not very regulated until about 15 years ago as the dolphins were starting to become negatively affected by it because more people started to come & feed them too much. Also there were incidents of dolphin mistreatment, one guy even put out his cigarette on a dolphin! At that point they started this highly structured feeding schedule & format. It has worked well & made things better for the dolphins while still promoting education because of what the people learn while waiting. It is really well handled. Neither Sayoko or I were picked, but I had gotten to feed the dolphins when I was here the first time so it was ok. I wish my camera had been working to get a picture of that, but I guess you can't win them all.

After getting done with this we decided to wait & see the second showing. While we did this we waited longer for all of our sheets & such to dry from the washing we had done the night before. Plus I bought a pair of sunglasses as my other had broke (there was not much selection so I got a really ugly pair). We also just chilled out on the beach enjoying the nice weather & even spent some time reading more about dolphins in the informational center. After seeing the second show & not getting picked again (darn) we packed everything up & ready to go.