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Local captain goes deeper with dolphin tours // PHOTO GALLERY

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PANAMA CITY BEACH — After working as a dolphin cruise guide for three years, 26-year-old Lorraine Frasier wanted to do things her own way.

The young captain launched her own tour business, Dolphin and Snorkel Tours, out of Bay Point Marina in March and now is working to bring her customers closer to nature using tools for underwater hearing and video.

Frasier moved to Panama City Beach from Colorado eight years ago with nothing but an old car and her life savings, determined to find a job working with marine animals.

“I moved here as soon as I graduated high school,” said Frasier, a native of Germany. “That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to live somewhere by the ocean and work with dolphins.”

PHOTO GALLERY

After investing in a 22-foot boat to launch her business, Frasier has been adding on to her onboard resources, which includes underwater hydrophones to allow guests to hear dolphins’ communicating by echolocation.

“A lot of times, they don’t know what they’re hearing is dolphins,” Frasier said. “They sound a lot different than they do on TV. They make a lot of clicking sounds and whistles that don’t sound like Flipper.”

She also plans to incorporate an underwater camera system into her tours and recently purchased a camera device with a 50-foot cord that will record underwater video that can be seen on an on-board television screen.

While Fisher said owning her own tour business is harder than she initially thought, it allows her to make tours meaningful and educational for her guests.

“I want to get more on the educational side of things,” said Fisher, who learned what she liked and didn’t like from working for many guides in the area. “Now I do my own thing.”

Part of the education, she said, comes from teaching Panama City Beach visitors to respect the wildlife.

“I try to educate them and let them know they’re wild animals,” Frasier said. “I tell them to give the dolphins a respective distance.”

For Frasier, it’s all a part of her lifelong dream to work with marine life.

“It’s just what I like to do,” she said. “It’s what I love.” 


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