When you sign up for a trip on the Dolphin Explorer you not only get to take a great boat ride, wander on a totally pristine deserted beach and collect handfuls of beautiful seashells, you get the chance to get up close and personal with some of the most amazing creatures on the planet.... bottlenose dolphin! And, as an added bonus, you also get to be a part of a unique scientifi c project - in fact you become a citizen scientist.Underwritten and managed by Sea Excursions, the Dolphin Explorer is engaged in the only on-going daily dolphin study in this area. With the help of their passengers, they chronicle every dolphin sighting and by comparing them to their chart of dolphin photos the crew are able to recognize individuals by the shape of their dorsal fi n and build up a bank of knowledge about them.... who they associate with, where they spend their time, when babies are born and how long they stay with their mothers.But learning about dolphin is just a part of this wonderful trip. As you cruise up the Inter-Coastal Waterway you'll also get to learn about the mangrove islands and nesting osprey you pass along the way. You'll then spend an idyllic forty minutes on the totally unspoiled beach at Keewaydin. It will feel like you are the only people in the world and with any luck your complimentary shelling bag will be bursting with treasures when you return to the boat and compare your fi nds. The crew will help identify your shells and give everyone copies of some of the photos they take on the trip.And, if you are under twelve, you can also take part in "The Dolphin Challenge" ...by participating in the Challenge's activities with the crew during the trip you will receive a Dolphin Patch and become a member of the exclusive Dolphin Explorer Club, which entitles one child in each family to free trips on the Dolphin Explorer until his/her 12th birthday. Who knew a scientifi c project could be such fun? If every science class was half as entertaining, and a quarter as informative, as a trip on the Dolphin Explorer, we'd all have a Ph.D. in science I'm sure!