“I want to catch a snail,” says fourth grader Chloe Kelley as she leans her upper body over a marina dock in Flagler County.

The boat tied up next to her hair as it touches the water below, looks like a dingy belonging to a million-dollar yacht. Upon boarding Ripple Effects I, a new world opens up inside the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. 

“The dolphins shed their skin every two hours, which is pretty amazing,” Chloe proudly states after a post dawn lesson on the water.

The future marine biologist is all ears during this Ripple Effects Eco Tour.

The boat trip leaving from Marineland stops within 150 feet to watch dolphins feeding.

While the tour shares the importance of preserving Florida’s natural spaces, there’s also something at work under the boat’s deck that keeps this tour environmentally responsible.

“This boat has an impellor built up inside of it. Nothing protrudes under the boat,” explains tour operator Chris Kelley. “[There’s] No chance of prop scaring these animals with this boat.”

The boat that Chloe’s father uses to give tours has no propeller. Instead, it’s a jet boat that runs on spent vegetable oil collected from Flagler County restaurants.

The exhaust smells like what was cooked before it.

“The boat smells like whatever was cooking in the kitchen. Some days it was the Thai restaurant, other days it was the seafood shop.  It smells like peanut oil if you will,” Chris says.

The renewable energy source means no petrol or chemicals enter the water or the animals natural habitat.

Seeing Florida’s natural wonders and staying responsible go hand in hand for Chloe.

 “If we destroy all this, we are destroying a piece of ourselves,” she says as a white egret takes flight from the mangroves and soars out of view.

Tankful on Television

You can catch new Florida on a Tankful stories each Thursday and Saturday on News 13 and Bay News 9. New editions play at the end of each hour starting at 6 a.m. Classic Florida on a Tankful stories can be found each Friday and Sunday on Bay News 9 and News 13 at the end of each hour starting at 6 a.m.

Tankful on Demand

Catch Florida on a Tankful with Scott Fais on your time, now on Bright House Local On Demand, Channel 999. Use your remote to scroll to the right to the TRAVEL category. Then SCROLL DOWN to TANKFUL.

Scott Fais joins Travel Monthly

Catch our own Scott Fais as the Florida Correspondent on the On Demand travel magazine, Travel Monthly. Each month, Scott joins other travel reporters from across the United States as they showcase a wide variety of attractions, diners, parks and landmarks from across America. See Travel Monthly nationally on Time Warner Cable channel 411.  And here at home on Channel 999 in the Travel section.