Winter the Dolphin and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Near Clearwater Beach, Florida
On the shores of Clearwater Bay, a nonprofit called the Clearwater Marine Aquarium has operated since nineteen seventy-two, dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and when possible release of injured marine animals. For decades it was a respected regional institution. Then a single dolphin made it internationally famous.
In December of two thousand five, a young bottlenose dolphin was found severely entangled in a crab trap line off the coast of Cape Canaveral. The ropes had cut so deeply into her tail that when rescuers brought her to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the circulation damage was irreversible. Veterinarians amputated most of her tail fluke.
A dolphin without a tail fin cannot swim properly and cannot survive in the wild. The aquarium's staff and a prosthetist worked together to design and fit an artificial tail, a first in the rehabilitation of marine mammals. The dolphin was named Winter.
Her story drew visitors from around the world to Clearwater and became the basis for the film Dolphin Tale, released in two thousand eleven and starring Morgan Freeman and Harry Connick Junior, which introduced Winter to an even wider audience. Winter died in November of two thousand twenty-one after complications from a gastrointestinal illness at the age of sixteen. The aquarium continues to operate as a marine rescue and education center in her name.
