Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) is the official home of Winter the Dolphin, who has achieved world-wide fame in the recently released film, A Dolphin’s Tale. The true story began in 2006 when 3-month old Winter was found stranded in the Mosquito Lagoon (nr Cape Canaveral) with her tail caught up in a crab line by a fisherman. He alerted authorities and stayed with her until she was rescued which took several hours.
Once taken to the CMA Winter lost her tail, but was nurtured by staff around the clock and learnt to swim by using her movement to side to side rather than up and down. Worried about the effect of this on her spine, the CMA reached out to leading Prosthetic manufacturer Kevin Carrol. The collaborative efforts of Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics, Inc., with Dr. Mike Walsh, a leading marine mammal veterinarian, took 18 months and around $150,000 of the companies own money to get the tail right. Along the way a special gel was invented to soften the impact of the tail on Winter’s skin – this has proved to be hugely effective for human recipients too!
Winter is just one of four Dolphins in permanent residence at the CMA. Hope and Nicholas were both found as orphaned babies and lack the skills of hunting that a mother would have taken years to impart. Panama is a senior citizen dolphin found stranded, anaemic, sunburnt and underweight. Once returned to health it was decided that she would be unsuitable for release because of her habit of begging from fisherman – a practise that causes much ill health amongst dolphins. Other residents, either permanent or temporary include otters, nurse sharks, turtles and sting rays. The list of released creatures makes interesting reading including 8 Atlantic bottlenose Dolphins, 2 pan-tropical spotted dolphins, 111 turtles, 9 otters and a sperm whale (in 2001)!
There are a variety of activities on offer at CMA including behind the scenes tours and sea life safaris and with general admission prices for adults at just $14-95 this will come as a welcome change from Central Florida attractions!
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