As I walked to class the other day carrying all the books I've spent an endless .
amount of time studying and drilling myself on, I couldn't help but to wonder is .
everything I need to learn available in a book? Although I know the knowledge you gain .
from books is important, thinking back I noticed I've obtained most of my knowledge .
through personal experiences, and the most significant of these being my job.
Being a Scuba Diver at the Gulfarium entails learning many things. These are .
things I couldn't learn through studying my dive manual or carefully reviewing charts. .
I've learned how to train animals, interact with them safely while diving , and how to .
handle them, however the most valuable is something you learn when you least expect it.
For instance in late June of 2003 I was doing a routine maintenance dive into the .
"main tank" of the Gulfarium which houses four of our seven bottlenose dolphins. As I .
was standing on the low feed, a ten foot square platform hovering about six inches above the .
water in the main tank, I was gathering my thoughts, making sure my mask was in place, air was .
on, everything seemed to be fine, so I jumped in. As soon as I jumped into the water I noticed .
Prince, the only male dolphin we have in the main tank, coming toward me, for some petting or .
maybe to play, when all of a sudden he strikes me, and swims off. "My God" I"m thinking as I try .
so hard to breath after that benumbing blow I just absorbed to my rib cage. Wham! He hit me .
again. I wasn't able to breath at all at that point, so I began racing toward the low feed. Thoughts .
of me dying in that tank began scare fully filling my head. Thunk! Again he hit me, this time on .
my tank, sill somehow, off what I guess was a surge of adrenalin .
I pulled myself out of the water and safely on the low feed. From that instance on every diver .
knows to face their air tank toward a dolphin that is acting aggressively, and try to get out of the .