Deep Blue Sea: The Gulfarium You Don’t Know
By Breanne Boland July 1, 2004 Issue

The Gulfarium, nestled in the middle of Okaloosa Island, looks like your typical marine life park. There are probably dolphin shows, you’ve told yourself while driving past it. Something with sea lions maybe. Fish, definitely fish. Maybe big ones. And you’re right, you’re right; the Gulfarium does have all that. It has a cycle of shows, including dolphins and sea lions, lasting about two hours, and a collection of exhibits that will occupy you after the show. However, there’s more going than the Multi-Species Show, in cooperation with the Gulfarium’s other resources, but just out of sight.

“People don’t always know about the behind the scenes work we’re doing with children in our summer camp program,” Gulfarium general manager Don Abrams says. “We have a blended school program where we work with home schooled students.”

The Gulfarium offers two camps: the Aquatic Camp, for kids entering grades three through six, and the Liquid Lab, for kids entering grades seven through 10. Aquatic Camp deals more strictly with marine biology – aquariums, snorkeling, trips out to the pier. A few years ago director of education Eric Deadwyler and the other people who run the education department noticed the older kids weren’t as interested in Aquatic Camp. Out of this observation came the Liquid Lab.

The older kids spend a week playing with water – think less marine biology and more the physical properties of liquids. They make quicksand and create electricity with dripping water. Basically, it’s a week full of the really fun experiments in high school science class, minus the lectures. “They do hands-on experiments,” Deadwyler explains. “They put it together, and try to make it work. They draw their own conclusions, and then we give them the coffee table explanation of things. It’s a jumping off point for them to find more knowledge on their own.”

While the camps (which are available only through waitlist and luck at this point) may seem a departure from the acrobatics and aquariums theme, it’s not so far off from the Gulfarium’s original mission, which is to educate, inform, and inspire. “We want to teach people about the watery world we live in,” Deadwyler explains. “We probably know less about the ocean than we do about outer space. Liquid water makes up less than one tenth of one percent of the earth’s total mass, but the earth’s surface is the way it is because of water.”

Exploration is a goal for another component of the Gulfarium. While perhaps not famous within the area, the JF 2 Project, headed by Dr. Janet Flowers, is known worldwide. Children and their families come from all over the United States, as well as Europe and South Africa, to participate in JF 2’s dolphin-assisted therapy.

“It’s very traditional therapy with a huge motivator sitting beside us,” Flowers explains. The JF 2 Project usually works with children who have multiple disabilities, including autism, Down’s Syndrome, cerebral palsy, and other developmental disabilities and communication disorders. Flowers and the JF 2 team work with the child’s therapist at home and use Kiwi and Daphne, two pan tropical spotted dolphins, to get the kids to try things they won’t usually try. “Sixty percent of them are not completely nonverbal,” she says. “It’s our job to give them some form of communication. The kids may be eight years old and we’re starting at the very beginning. We use the dolphins as the primary motivator. First, we make the kids fall in love with the dolphins, by having them retrieve balls and do other tricks,” she says. “The kids love the dolphins because they accept them unconditionally,” she explains. Then it is quickly made clear that work comes first – then play.

Aside from her daily therapy sessions, Flowers’ is working on furthering the field of dolphin-assisted therapy by compiling data on the success the project has had. “We can fill the room with parents who tell you feel-good stories,” she says. “My job is to quantify those changes to show parents worldwide the changes that were seen so they can make educated choices.”

The dedication to exploration comes through the Gulfarium’s regular exhibits and shows too. Every exhibit, from the penguins to the sharks to the sea otters, has placards full of information about the animals you’re gazing down upon, and even the Sea Lion Show takes a moment to teach the audience the difference between sea lions and seals. Sea lions have an external flap to their ear, while seals have a more recessed hole. There are other differences, but you’ll have to investigate yourself to find out.

The Living Sea show, air conditioned and indoors for the sunburned, sweaty masses, has a 60,000 gallon aquarium embedded in the front wall of the small auditorium. For 20 minutes, a scuba diver acts as a visual aid for a voiceover, giving a combination scuba lesson and fish primer. While the voice of authority gives explanations, the diver hams it up a little, which delights the kids in the audience, proving that you should never underestimate the comedic value of a person in fins and goggles making like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. However, the biggest reaction from the audience was when the diver wrestled a green moray eel out from under a rock and in front of the glass. Kids (and some adults) groaned and shuddered as the eel, longer than the diver was tall, squirmed in her grasp, as bright and fluid as green algae.

When you’re walking around between shows, the most captivating part of the aquarium is the 400,000-gallon dolphin tank. Two floors wind around it, and a third opens to bleachers for the Dolphin Show. The two lower floors are dotted with square windows at varied heights that open into the depths of the tank, prime viewing spots for watching the four bottlenose dolphins at rest, playing with each other when they’re not jumping through hoops. While I stood there, one drifted over and lazily eyed me before swimming closer and pressing its eye to the window to get a good look at me. The entire square of the window was filled with curious grey dolphin, and for a moment I felt like I was the exhibit. We stared at each other for a few seconds before it pushed away to glide through the rest of the pool.

For more information about the Gulfarium, call 243-9046, or go online to www.gulfarium.com.

More from Breanne Boland

(Top)