Today Barbara and I went to Clearwater Marine Aquarium, aka CMA,(http://www.seewinter.com/) and we had a great time. The aquarium is built into an old water treatment plant that was shutdown by the city of Clearwater and it works as a great aquarium. The star of the aquarium is the bottle nose dolphin called Winter but more about her later. Our first stop was to the turtle ICU. The turtle ICU is were they keep turtles that are infected with a virus, much like the herpes virus in humans, that causes growths around their eyes and on and under the flippers. After the growths are removed the turtles have to be quarantined for a year and if they do not develop any more growths the turtle can be released back into the wild. Sometimes the growths grow on the turtles lungs or liver and when that happens the turtle has to be destroyed. Next we went upstairs were you can look down into the different pools. First we looked down into the otter area and watched the otters playing. Then we were able to see the two male dolphins get their morning vitamins, very interesting how they do that. The two male dolphins are there because they can not be released back into the wild. Nicholas’s mother got sick when he was about 6 months old and beached herself. Nicholas being dependent on his mother for nourishment followed her. His mother died a few days later and Nicholas from being in the sun got 3rd degree sunburns on over 30% of his body. Now being completely dependent on the humans who were caring for him and not having the skills to hunt or defend himself could never be released back into the wild.
in this picture you can see the scar tissue on his back from the sunburn. The other male Indy was found with multiple shark and dolphin bites the most serious were lacerations on his peduncle and a severed fluke. he healed well over the next several months but was not released due to the poor success rate of the release of juveniles into the wild. He also would not go after live fish in his tank even after a 24 hour fast. He lacked the life skills to survive so he also is a permanent resident at the aquarium.
You can see Indy is missing part of his fluke. Panama is the oldest dolphin at the aquarium. The fact that her teeth have been worn down and her association with “beggar” dolphins she became the surrogate mother to Winter. That brings me to Winter, the dolphin who could. When Winter was three months old she got tangled in a crab trap line. She was entangled so tightly that her tail and two vertebra had to be removed. But she survived and grew, and continues to grow. Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics Inc. heard about Winter’s problem and has worked to fit her with a new fluke tail prostheses. Today she had a special visitor to her tank, the Scholastic’s “Meet Winter the Dolphin Contest.” winner. As the winner of the contest she got a very special up close and personal visit with Winter.
Please go to the web site www.seewinter.com were you can see and read more about all the dolphins and other animals being cared for at CMA. Here are more pictures I took while there, enjoy.
