Chris Ryan and his four year old son, Liam, left the Bolongo Bay Resort to visit Coral World in St. Thomas. This is an interview with Scotty, the head trainer at Coral World. There are seven different types of encounters available. You can go under water to view the coral reefs. There is Sea Trek where you can experience being a diver and Snuba which is like scuba diving but without the tanks and lengthy training requirements. You can even go under water and stay completely dry by going in their Nautilus Semi Submarine. There are three encounters which involve entering the environments of three different sea animals–sea lions, turtles and sharks. Chris and Liam had an out of water session with Remo, the Sea Lion. Coral World is proud of the diverse experiences that it offers to its guests and of course their animals. The encounter is tailored to the size and interests of the visitors and this helps to give a varied experience for the animals. So, intelligent animals like the sea lions don’t become nervous or bored. For instance, Liam wanted to know why sea lions had such small ears. So they looked at the ears and Liam could see how the small ears allow the sea lion to swim very fast. Sea lions have a level of intelligence similar to dogs. For that reason, there is some routine, but the trainers vary the activities, feeding, and training to challenge the animals. During their encounter, Remo did a number of tricks. He showed his swimming prowess, joined them on the deck to do the hokie pokie, and Chris held a bar 12 feet in the air that Remo easily jumped over. Next they checked in on the sea turtles and sharks at Coral World.
