Other places in Bahamas

Eleuthera Grand Bahama Island Great Exuma Island

Swimming with dolphins

From the Mail on Sunday
Should you interact with dolphins? From time to time I'm sent stern warnings telling me that places which offer 'dolphin encounters' are really a sort of dolphin sweatshop.
Poor benighted dolphins, you get the impression, are locked away only to be brought out from time to time to perform beastly tricks for humans.
There's a part of me that agrees with this - I'm a vegetarian, after all.
But another part wonders whether occasionally we mistakenly get too worked up about things.
I know that a lot of animals are maltreated, but a substantial number also live the life of Riley (our 19-year-old cat for one).
So on a visit to the Bahamas when a chance to swim with dolphins was offered, I was tempted. But nobody mentioned kissing.
Have you ever kissed a dolphin? Probably not.
They're bristly, blubbery and - let's not beat about the lagoon here - they suffer from very, very bad breath. It's like snogging a fishmonger's counter.
So when a dolphin rises out of the water in front of you and puckers up - what would you do? I winced.
'Hey, you need to go to kissing school,' scolded Marcie, the dolphin's minder, who was standing behind me.

Read more in our destination guide to Bahamas.