Dolphin Research Center, Marathon

What a place! When we entered I thought we may have made a mistake. The “grounds” is nothing spectacular and smaller than I envisioned. Few people there on Wednesday mid morning. And then, we went to the first dolphin enclosure! Wonderful sign telling us all about the dolphins who lives there. There are many of these “pools”. The staff is so informative. It is a learning environment, not a show, but their interactions with the dolphins and information are better than any show could have been. They answered questions, shared stories and even talked one on one with people as they walked by. So interesting. I did the meet and greet and highly recommend!!! It is an additional $25 at admission. I got to “pet” the dolphin as he swam by and then got to “shake hands with it”. Amazing. We also watched the interactions with the seal lions. The staff member was training with a whistle which was a learning curve for them. So cool they take the time to learn about these animals. My only complaint - I was missed by staff at the original time I was scheduled. When it was my turn I was at a dock where getting photos of me during the greet was poor. Wish this wouldn’t have been. Kind of a bummer I have no good photos. Staff maybe can take note, the far “pool” in the middle is not great for meet and greet photos. Do not miss this amazing place. Best part of my visit to the Keys!

This place is really nice. It is about an hour and 15 minutes up there highway from key west. The drive up there is beautiful. When you get to the dolphin research center, it is small and unassuming looking but after entering through the ticket booth, you walk out back and there are front and back lagoons. The back lagoons are along a dock walkway and has several large natural ocean water enclosures for dolphins. The staff explained that several of these dolphins are rescues and after their rescue were either too young or too badly damaged to release back into the wild. Other dolphins have been born there. It’s a very natural center and all of the dolphins seem well cared for. There are several encounters that are offered for meeting and interacting with the dolphins from just petting them to having a dolphin paint a t shirt for you to splashing and swimming with the dolphins. These encounters should be purchased ahead of time because they may not be available day of. They have several seals also in another natural ocean enclosure. They have a few large bird cages with macaws. The signs showed that several of the macaws can talk although we only heard one of them actually talk.