Its stars may be as frolicsome and endearing as ever, but designers of the new dolphin show at the National Aquarium in Baltimore say the idea is to do more than simply show the aquatic charmers at play.
"In the old show, Play, we tried to show play as a form of learning," says Nancy Hotchkiss, the aquarium's senior director for visitor experiences. "We wanted people to see that with the dolphins, and realize that for themselves."
The new show, titled Our Ocean Planet, tries for something a little more serious, she says. "It focuses more on the dolphins' life underwater. We hope the show will remind people that there is so much going on beneath the surface."
The show, which debuted Friday, still features the jumps, splashes and chattering sounds audiences love - stuff done either high in the air above or along the surface of the aquarium's 1.2 million-gallon dolphin tank. But it also includes activities best seen through the tank's clear walls.
Like blowing bubbles underwater. Now there's a talent Flipper never seemed to master. And when Chinook the dolphin starts blowing bubbles out of his blowhole - looking for all the world like Grandpa sitting on his favorite couch, smoking his pipe and blowing smoke rings - the effect is undeniably cool.
"This was absolutely a new game for them," says senior dolphin trainer Shannon Daisey. "It's a whole new thing for them. They had absolutely no idea what was going on at first."
That's not all the new stuff sharp-eyed dolphin-show devotees will notice. There's the bit where a dolphin swims along the edge of the tank, close enough to the surface so that just its dorsal fin is showing (not the most exciting trick, but it does replicate what most people see of dolphins in the wild, as schools swim close to the shore). There are underwater somersaults. And there's a very impressive crowd-pleaser during which an upright dolphin skims along the water's surface, balancing a globe atop its snout. All that is new, says Daisey, the result of some six months of specialized dolphin training.
Before the show, pictures submitted by friends of the aquarium (via Flickr) are displayed on two video screens. So far, Hotchkiss says, some 200 people have submitted photos - mostly of animals at the aquarium, although some of the best show people watching animals at the aquarium.
