The dolphin sanctuary on Blue Lagoon Island account for an impressive three full three acres. This includes space for a resident pod of dolphins, education and training facilities, a kitchen, state-of-the-art photo lab, restroom facilities and a gift shop so you can pick something up for all those loved ones at home wishing they were swimming with dolphins! Every tour in the Blue Lagoon begins with an in depth orientation about the facilities, and an educational presentation where you learn all about these sentient beings of the sea. Trainers will tell you all about their biology, their importance to the eco-system, how they interact with their environment, and their unique behavior. And once you’ve all become mini experts, you will be treated to a training seminar where you can learn how to play with your dolphin.

Once you’re finished with the presentation/seminar, it’s time to suit up and get in the water and put all those techniques you just learned into action. The great thing about the Blue Lagoon Bahamas swim with dolphins experience is it can be as interactive or as distanced as you want. If you’re nervous about getting in the water, or their fast movement makes you uncomfortable, you can always dangle your toes over the side and a trainer will work with you to both put you at ease, and ensure you have a great experience.

For those who love to dive head into everything, be prepared to be spun, nuzzled, kissed, and splashed. Give them a hug, and you’ll amazed at the affection they give back. Run your hands gently down their beautiful, streamlined body, and marvel at their strength, this is truly experience you’ll never forget. There are no more than 10 people permitted in the water at once, so if you’re traveling with your large family, or concerned about crowds, worry no more. And if you’ve left your camera at home, don’t sweat it, the best photographers in the business are always on hand to catch every magical moment. The Blue Lagoon dolphin experience is one of the best anywhere in the Caribbean, so steal yourself away for the afternoon, and create the perfect Bahamas swim with dolphins memory!

What Do They Look Like?

Sea Lions in general, come in a wide range of colors. The males tend to come in a dark almost chocolate or espresso colored brown, and the females are generally a light to golden brown tone. As you may have noticed, the females are significantly smaller than the males. With the females weighing 220 pounds and averaging six feet in length, they pale in comparison to the males which can weigh as much as 850 pounds and grow up to seven feet long! That is a LOT of sea lion! This particular breed of sea lion is distinctive for its very canine like face and their “sagittal crest”, a hard bump on the top of their skull that they use to ram other bulls during mating season, or when they’re feeling territorial. This bump actually changes color and becomes lighter as the sea lion gets older.

Where Do They Live?

California Sea Lions are generally found on the Western Coast of North America. There is an abundance of them off the beautifully rugged shores of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. They are also found all the way down the Western Pacific coast, right down to the tip of the Baja. When breeding season rolls around, they can be found partnering on the islands offshore, often in California’s Channel Islands and right down south to Mexico. Another fabulous place they hang out is he Galapagos Islands in Ecuador

What About Breeding?

The summer months are the breeding months. Pups are generally born anywhere from the end of May into late July, and they weight about 15-20 pounds when they’re born, a far cry from their father’s 850 pounds! If you’ve ever taken a boat to a sea lion colony, it’s difficult to imagine that a mother seal could recognize her helpless pup amidst the beached bodies. But she recognizes both their smell and their noises. In return, pups learn very quickly, how to recognize the smell of their mother and will respond by barking. During the breeding season, the large males will spend the duration of their time patrolling the area, barking and challenging encroaching males.

How Do They Behave?

You will notice that California Sea Lions, like dolphin, are incredibly social, comical creatures. They live in large groups, and the more sandwiched together, the better. That’s why when you go to San Francisco, you always sea them squashed together on Fisherman’s Wharf like a bunch of sardines in a can! When they’re in the ocean, they’ll often link together, and create one gargantuan raft. During your Sea Lion encounter, you will probably receive a big kiss and loads of splashing, nothing less is to be expected from these clowns of the sea.

What Do they Eat?

California Sea Lions are what biologists like to refer to as “opportunistic feeders” which means, they don’t generally spend days on end hunting for sustenance, they eat all sorts of things other sea creatures wouldn’t. They love herring, rockfish, mackerel, small sharks and squid, just as an example.

Arrive Early to the Ferry Terminal

The start of your adventure starts at the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal where you will take a 15 min ride over to the beautiful Blue Lagoon.The boat departure dock/check-in is located within walking distance to most area hotels at the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal. The Boat departs each day at 8:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 1:30 PM and 3:30PM. We reccommend gettting there early to ensure that you do not have any issues boarding. Our state of the art double deck catamaran will take you on a senic 20 minute ride to the home of the Bahamas Dolphin Encounter and Sea Lion Encounter home.

Take Advantage of the Blue Lagoon Ammenities

• Spectacular ocean and beach views – whether you are participating in one of our interactive animal programs or just observing, a visit to our beautiful island alone is worth it. Surrounded by turquoise blue water on all sides and covered with native coconut trees, lush landscaping and a natural lagoon, Blue Lagoon Island is an extraordinary private island that offers guests a glimpse of an untouched paradise
• Over three acres of natural saltwater habitat. Our dolphins and sea lions live in a rich, natural environment filled with fish, crabs, lobsters, shells and other sea creatures
• Tropical, all-natural surroundings on a private island unlike any other
• Orientation and Educational Displays
• Full photography and video services - our state-of-the-art lab will have your souvenir photos and DVDs ready before you leave the island
• A large souvenir and gift shop
• Lockers and changing rooms
• Indoor and outdoor showers
• Fins Café – offering a variety of sandwiches, salads, snacks and drinks at reasonable prices
• Picnic areas
• Complimentary Wetsuits (in Winter and Spring)
• The facility is completely wheelchair accessible. We also provide a special waterproof wheelchair for guests to interact with our dolphins in the Dolphin Encounter program.
• Our Guest Services desk can answer questions or assist guests in any way.

Observe the Dolphins and Sea Lions

If you do not wish to participate in one of our dolphin swim programs or sea lion encounters you can still join in the fun as an observer. For a $25 fee you can view the beautiful Atlantic bottlenose dolphin and the california sea lions in their natural habitat without getting in the water.

The Observer program offers a fun and interactive orientation and history of the dolphin Encounters facility.

Perhaps you have kids at camps such as those for children with cancer. Maybe your kids have special needs like Type 1 diabetes or muscular dystrophy. Whatever the type of camp in which the children retreat, they will enjoy the chance to make the squeaking and squealing noises the dolphins make when they communicate with each other. They will be fascinated when they see the dolphins come up for air, just like they do. The children will see how the dolphins travel in groups called pods. They will watch as the mammals approach people in the water and in boats, because they are social animals.

Kids attending sports camps, band camps or kids going on senior trips will get a kick out of watching the sea lions as they learn about Dolphin Cay, or Atlantis swim with dolphins. Some sea lions live in sub-arctic waters, but most live in warm waters like Blue Lagoon Bahamas. They can grow quite large, especially the males. No one knows much about sea lions, except their mating habits and their anatomy. Like dolphins, they are friendly and social animals. Like dolphins, they don’t mind playing with people. Your kids will get a charge out of learning a little about these playful and wonderful aquatic animals.

Youth groups at church as well as Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts might like an experience with the dolphins and sea lions at Dolphin Encounters Bahamas. From Blue Lagoon Island, the kids will see the natural habitat where the pod of dolphins lives. Also included is the educational area, photo lab, bathrooms and changing area, a kitchen and gift shop. The tour begins with an educational class. In this class, the children will learn all about the animals, their behavior, intelligence, what their bodies are like and their environment. Then it will be out into the water with the playful creatures. The children will practice what they just learned, and a videographer will capture it all on film. They won’t forget this experience!

Perhaps sponsors at weight loss camps or companies who send their employees’ children off on retreat for a holiday would appreciate the environment in which their kids will be exercising and learning. A private island surrounded by aqua-blue waters, that have lush tropical growth, coconut trees and white sands wrapped around a hidden lagoon will be theirs to explore. Tropical birds, sea life and coral reefs provide color and wonder to the experience. The children will see what untouched natural beauty looks like and revel in the quiet sounds of nature.

Two different and infinitely interesting tours are open for your children’s birthday parties, graduation from grade school and middle school or just because you can trips. The first tour is called Close Encounters. The kids will stand on a platform in waist-deep water. Trainers will instruct the kids how to understand the sounds the dolphins make and try to communicate with them. They will be shown how to hug the animals and the swimmers may even kiss the children. The kids will play with the playful creatures and have a truly wonderful encounter with the dolphins.

The other tour the children may take is Swim with the Dolphins. Following a short course on dolphins, the children will be able to actually swim with the animals. Hang onto their fins for a swooshing swim or let the dolphins take the children for a ride on their bottlenose. Hugs and petting is allowed. The kids will be amazed at their ability to swim with creatures not human, the sounds they make in communication and their friendliness and sociability toward humans.

Blue Lagoon Bahamas is a beautiful trip into the unknown for children to simultaneously learn and play. They may have never seen a coral reef or a real lagoon. They might not know what it’s like to swim in waters in which they can see to the bottom. The kids might have only seen coconut trees in movies. They could see all kinds of fish in addition to sea lions and dolphins. You will also swim with the dolphins and have a close encounter with them. You will see it all through the children’s eyes as you are learning about it, too. You’ll even have video of the whole experience to take back with you. It will be a wonder everyone will remember for a long time.

1. The Bahamas Sea Lion Encounter program provides families with the opportunity to interact with California sea lions, one of the most delightfully playful, peppy and friendly sea creatures in the world! The program begins with a fun, interactive presentation to showcase the sea lion facility, the history of sea lions and the training and care of sea lions. Concerned with the protection of sea lions and other endangered marine animals, the presentation highlights relevant environmental issues and emphasizes the importance of ocean conservation.

"I was impressed with how much care they took of the animals," reports one Trip Advisor rater of her Bahamas Sea Lion Encounter experience.

After the presentation, participants interact closely with sea lions. Full of sociability and personality, an adorable creature might sit on a person's lap, "kiss", hug by gently wrapping her flippers around someone and will always swim close-by for plenty of petting and feeding. One Trip Advisor user rates the sea lions she encountered on the Blue Lagoon Island as, "absolutely hilarious."

All three programs include access to the island's quiet, secluded, white-sand beach and clear turquoise waters, volleyball, basketball and other games.

2. The Beach Day Pass offers families a chance to experience the "real" Bahamas on Blue Lagoon Island. A lush tropical and tranquil setting, families can spend the entire today relaxing on the beach sunning or under native coconut trees in double hammocks, beach chairs and picnic tables. Swimming in calm lagoon water with unlimited access to floating mats, noodles and inner tubes entertain families for hours. The package includes all-day access to the island's inflatable land and water parks. Additional water activities such as kayaking, water biking and snorkeling are available for additional cost. Overall, this option provides "lots of fun for all ages," says one Trip Advisor user.

Beach Day visitors can lunch on complimentary delicious grilled food that includes a choice of an Angus beef, chicken or veggie burger, chips, fresh fruit and a fruit punch drink. For additional cost, the Beach Bar serves premium drinks including a frozen piña colada which one Trip Advisor user states, "will knock your socks off."

All island guests may visit the enclosure areas to observe the dolphins and sea lions swimming and playing up-close. Each program allows access to the island's clean changing facilities, restrooms, showers and lockers.

The prices for all also programs include transportation on a high-speed, double-decker catamaran to and from the island from nearby Nassau, just three miles away. This 30-minute trip offers guests spectacular views of Nassau's historic harbor, Atlantis and other beautiful properties along the way.

Please visit swimwithdolphinsbahamas.com for additional information about these opportunities. If you have any questions about these tours, you can call or chat with one of our representatives today.

Dolphin Encounters, world-renowned for its quality of care and for its research, seeks to provide a safe and natural ocean habitat for the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Situated on three acres, the facility offers programs that both educate the public about dolphins and also provide unique and various levels of socially interactive experiences between humans and these social, highly intelligent and intuitive sea mammals.

1. The Swim with Dolphins Nassau program gives people the unparalleled opportunity to touch, play and swim in the water with dolphins. The program begins with an educational presentation about the habitats, biological makeup, habits and behaviors of dolphins. The session teaches training techniques, which enable participants to have the safest and highest level of social interaction with dolphins as possible.

Afterwards, small groups of 10 or less enter the water while wearing life jackets. Participants can then use the training secrets they just learned to do anything from spinning around with the dolphins, hugging and petting them and swimming alongside them. Incredibly friendly and gentle, dolphins enjoy "showing off" and interacting with humans. Participants can swim with dolphins by holding onto their fins.

Two dolphins will even willingly give a person a "foot push" across the lagoon. This occurs when a person puts a foot on the nose of each dolphin will then both propel the lucky individual through the water. One Trip Advisor user praises the "foot push" experience as, "Really a treat!" for her 6-year-old son.

These intuitive and majestic sea mammals enthrall participants with a half hour of full social interaction. Trip Advisor users describe this experience as, "a lifetime memory" and "the best day of my life."

Because Swim with Dolphins Nassau is so completely engrossing, participants might not want or be able to step "out of the moment" to take pictures or film the experience. On-site professional videographer and photographer assist participants of all three interactive animal programs by recording the experience.

2. The Dolphin Encounter program gives families the opportunity to come face to face with dolphins in waist-deep water. As with the Swim program, participants first receive an educational presentation on the biology, behavior and habitats of dolphins.

Participants then get into the water where they will delight in hugging, petting and "dancing" with dolphins, rubbing their bellies, having direct eye contact with and maybe even receiving a bottlenose kiss from these social, gentle and well-trained animals. This option is popular among families who still want an amazing, close encounter with dolphins but who are not quite comfortable swimming with them.

These two activities are a great addition to your list of things to do in the Bahamas. Please visit swimwithdolphinsbahamas.com for additional information about these opportunities.

From entanglement in fishing gear to pollution, the threats against dolphins are many and mighty. Dolphins have been eliminated or reduced in number across much of their historic range, and some species—particularly the little-known river dolphins of the tropics—are facing down extinction. (The baiji, native to China’s Yangtze River, may already be gone or effectively so due to massive alteration of its habitat; this would give this freshwater species the ignominious distinction of being the first cetacean to clearly go extinct due to human activity.)

Dolphins, like any other organisms, have a fundamental right to exist. No one creature is more worthy than another; every animal represents a spectacular evolutionary journey and the fulfillment of a specific ecological niche. Every extinction reverberates throughout an ecosystem, and, as formidable as our scientific prowess is, we can’t possibly predict and track every resulting change. That the loss of even a seemingly insignificant species can produce a real impact on our own is no flight of fancy: The science of ecology, still a young one, has highlighted how deeply interconnected we all are in the biosphere.

Beyond their intrinsic value, though, dolphins are absolutely worth protecting on multiple levels. There conservation is an essential and worthy cause—for the cetacean’s sake and our own. Keep them in mind the next time you enjoy our world-class dolphin experience !

Beyond direct hunting for their flesh, the animals are infamously vulnerable as “bycatch”: Dolphins and porpoises commonly snare in fishing nets and lines, a mortality factor that has placed some species, such as the vaquita and the Maui’s dolphin, in direct danger of extinction. The Cetacean Bycatch Resource Center reports that more than 300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises may die annually from fouling in fishing gear.

Anthropogenic pollution also poses an insidious risk: Toxins like pesticides and heavy metals magnify up trophic levels (the energy tiers in a food web), and so top predators like dolphins can accumulate damaging, even lethal levels. The impacts of oil spills on cetaceans aren’t fully known, but may involve declines in dolphin prey or alteration of dolphin movement patterns.

Dolphins are inherently vulnerable to environmental degradation because of their biology. Like many large mammals, dolphins are relatively long-lived and reproduce slowly—they typically only have a single calf at a time after a protracted gestation period and rear it over several years. These fundamental traits constrain their recovery from population crashes compared with animals that breed more frequently and have more young at a time.

At the Blue Lagoon Island Dolphin Sanctuary and the UNEXSO Swim with the Dolphins are both programs helping to make sure that awareness and education is raised with the public population in order to help save these intelligent creatures. Both of our programs are passionate about our dolphins, and would hate the thought of anything happening to them, so that is why we are trying to get people around the world to be more conscious of their decisions and letting them know how they can help the dolphins. Just book a dolphin encounter in the Bahamas and see how intelligent these creatures and you will quickly side with us in taking action to protect them all over the world.

A concept of ecology called “mesopredator release” suggests that the elimination of a top predator can provoke an explosion in the numbers of smaller, mid-level predators it formerly kept in check, radically transforming ecological dynamics. Numerous studies in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems seem to illustrate this principal. Major reductions in the populations of dolphins and large fish in the Black Sea, for example, were followed by increases in the abundance of plankton-eating fish and associated declines in zooplankton that, in turn, bolstered phytoplankton abundance.

This phenomenon can have very real effects on people. In the North Atlantic, massive declines of large sharks due to overfishing resulted in increased numbers of mesopredators such as skates, sharpnose sharks, and—most significantly—cownose rays. Increased predation pressure from these smaller hunters then led to a steep decline in bay scallops and a collapse of a long-standing scallop industry on the East Coast.

It is important to us to protect these intelligent marine mammals , and do whatever we can to make sure they are safe in their natural environment. This is a difficult job for just us, and we realize that we need the help of everyone to save these animals. Even if it’s a conscious effort to pick up some trash you found on the beach or your local waterways. If everyone in the world made this effort, we would have a clean and harmonious planet. You can help support us by booking a dolphin encounter tour , and learn more about our dolphins in the Bahamas.

We know that the difference between a Seal and Sea Lions seems very little (if even at all) for the average person. Before you come and meet our sea lions in person for a Sea Lion Encounter at the Blue Lagoon Island, learn some facts about what makes them unique and different compared to seals.

1. Ears

The most notable difference between Seals and Sea Lions are the types of ears they have. Sea lions have earflaps laying over their ear canal. The Seal has not flap covering their ear canal, leaving it exposed.

2. Foreflippers

Another way to easily identify a sea lion from a seal is by looking at the marine mammal’s foreflippers. If the flippers in the front are short, furry and show long claws, than this is most likely a seal. A seal lion will have long hairless flippers in the front and their hind flippers are able to rotate, which gives them the freedom to walk on land.

3. Whiskers

Whiskers are another trick that marine biologist use to identify a seal or a sea lion. A sea lion will have a cluster of very long, and smooth looking whiskers, and seals will have whiskers that are more of a crinkled look.

4. Swimming Style

If you are in the environment that you are able to observe the marine mammal swimming, than try to pick up on some of the movements. If the animal is using it’s foreflippers by flapping it like a bird would flap it’s wings, than this is a sea lion. If it is swimming by the hind flippers giving the speed and the foreflippers are doing the steering, then it is a seal.

Generally speaking, the seal is overall going to be stubbier and round looking. The Sea Lion has a longer body, neck, flippers (both front and back), and more of a protruding face. To meet one of our sea lions today at the Blue Lagoon Island, call us at 1-800-688-5871.