Spotlight: Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids

Thank you to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium for hosting our family’s visit.  All opinions are my own.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium is not a typical aquarium.  It allows visitors to spend time with rescued and awe-inspiring animals while maintaining an educational focus and throwing in a bit of Hollywood.  We have been to many wonderful aquariums that offer amazing displays of marine life.  Unlike almost every other aquarium, however, Clearwater Marine Aquarium does not buy, breed or sell any animals and is dedicated to the rehabilitation and release of rescued marine animals.  The only permanent residents are animals who have some permanent condition that precludes a safe release.  Clearwater Marine Aquarium is not only the home of Winter, the world-famous bottlenose dolphin who overcame all odds after losing her tail and uses a prosthetic tail, but  is also the main filming location of two movies about Winter, Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2.  We definitely recommend visiting the Clearwater Marine Aquarium with kids!

• Kid Facts:  Clearwater Marine Aquarium opened in a former water treatment facility in 1979.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids – Dolphin Tale

The number of visitors to Clearwater Marine Aquarium grew exponentially since the debut of the Dolphin Tale movies.  As a result, expansion seemed inevitable, and Clearwater Marine Aquarium has been careful to maintain its education focus and not venture into theme park territory.  The parking garage was completed in 2017, and construction began on the two-year expansion of the Aquarium in December 2017 that is expected to be complete by January 2020.  Temporarily, visitors parking in the garage need to walk alongside the construction zone to reach the Aquarium. The kids enjoyed following Winter’s signs to the temporary entrance.

• Kid Facts:  Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s expansion includes two four-story buildings and a new dolphin habitat.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids – Winter the Dolphin

The highlight of Clearwater Marine Aquarium is definitely the Winter Zone, which is home to both Winter and Hope, the stars of Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2.  Winter was rescued in December 2005 after being entangled in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral in 2005 when she was only two months old.  Because the entanglement cut off circulation to her tail flukes, her tail ultimately deteriorated and caused her to swim unnaturally.   Winter was not expected to survive, and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium received recommendations to euthanize her after her rescue.  However, she persevered and overcame incredible odds.  Hanger Prosthetics created a silicone-and-plastic tail with a specially-designed gel sleeve that allowed her to swim properly.

Winter – Photo courtesy of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium

• Kid Facts:  Dolphin calves usually spend their first few years with their mothers, learning important survival skills.  Because Winter was separated from her mother at about two months and had a prosthetic tail, she was not a candidate for release and became a permanent resident at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids – Winter’s Inspiration

Winter has become an inspiration to children and adults with medical conditions or disabilities.  People travel from all over the world to meet Winter, and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium displays pictures and cards from inspired visitors and friends in Winter’s Gallery of Hope.  Winter also made quite an impression on my kids.  My daughter sleeps with her Winter souvenir every night.

• Kid Facts:  Clearwater resident Maja Kazazic lost her leg at age 16 when she was injured by a motor shell rocket grenade in Bosnia.  She was inspired by Winter and wanted the same doctor who treated Winter.  Hanger Prosthetics also made her a prosthetic leg with the same type of gel originally created for Winter.  Maja volunteers at Clearwater Marine Aquarium weekly and is a motivational speaker.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids – Hope the Dolphin

Hope was rescued from the Indian River Lagoon December 2010 as an orphaned dolphin attempting to nurse from her mother, who had died after becoming beached.  Because her mother died before teaching her important survival skills, Hope was also not a candidate for release.  Before our trip, we watched Dolphin Tale 2, which includes a dramatization of Hope’s rescue.  We enjoyed watching Hope’s feeding during our visit.

Maintaining its educational focus, Clearwater Marine Aquarium never requires its animals to “perform” for visitors.  However, dolphin Nicholas enjoys showing off for visitors.  Nicholas is also a bottlenose dolphin who was rescued with his mother on Christmas Eve in 2002 when he was about six months old.  His mother, Noelle, died a few days later but Nicholas was left with severe sunburn. When his burns healed, Nicholas like Winter and Hope, was not a candidate for release due to his separation from his mother at such a young age.  We were lucky to watch one of his presentations during our visit.

• Kid Facts:  Nicholas has successfully predicted the outcome to many national championships and portrayed Mandy in Dolphin Tale 2.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium is an animal hospital and constantly treating rescued animals. We got to see the Surgical Suite, which was featured as a movie set in Dolphin Tale 2 as a turtle ICU.

• Kid Facts:  This surgical suite was the set for Dolphin Tale 2 scenes featuring medical care for the sea turtle, Mavis.  Permanent resident, Harold, played Mavis.  Harold was rescued in 2010 and is non-releasable because of vision impairment.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids – Turtle Rescues

At Clearwater Marine Aquarium, we also learned about turtle rescues.  Many turtles were effected by the recent cold weather in Florida and brought in for rehabilitation.  By the time of our visit in February, 80 rescued turtles came to Clearwater Marine Aquarium in 2018, compared to a total of 79 in all of 2017.  Additionally, 39 turtles had already been released this year, compared to 29 in 2017.

• Kid Facts:  Clearwater Marine Aquarium released 29 green sea turtles effected by cold temperatures on nearby Honeymoon Island on January 25, 2018.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium also treats many green turtles infected with the fibropapilloma virus that causes benign tumors on soft tissues.  These highly contagious tumors can be removed with laser therapy, and cured turtles can be released back into the ocean.  The Clearwater Marine Aquarium is participating in research to find the cause of the fibropapilloma virus and why it typically effects only green turtles.  Because the fibropapilloma virus is highly contagious, infected turtles are quarantined in tanks separated from turtles rescued for other purposes.

• Kid Facts:  Current research suggests that the fibropapilloma virus may be connected to agriculture and waste-water runoff.

Mavis’ Rescue Hideaway features Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s resident sea turtles, including Harold.  Divers were doing a scuba presentation during our visit.

• Kid Facts: On Valentine’s Day, a Clearwater Marine Aquarium volunteer was married in an underwater wedding in the Aquaium’s turtle habitat.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids – Pelicans

We also met Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s pelicans.  Matthew and Tyndall reside in Rufus Beach, which was named for the pelican featured in the Dolphin Tale movies.   Rufus was played by Ricky, one of Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s permanent residents, who resides in the new aviary with Skylar.

• Kid Facts:  Pelicans are flighted birds that can have wingspans up to 11 feet.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids – Cooper and Walle

The kids also enjoyed otters Cooper and Walle at the Otter Oasis.

• Kid Facts:  Walle is a five-year-old otter with more energy than fifteen-year-old, Cooper.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium With Kids – Dolphin Tale Memorabilia 

Clearwater Marine Aquarium features lots of memorabilia from the Dolphin Tale movies and pictures from the films that were especially fun for my kids, who really enjoyed both movies.

Our favorite bit of memorabilia was the houseboat. Our amazing guide, Julia Anderson, expertly answered our countless questions about the movies and the Aquarium.  We not got to see many of the animals featured in the movies but also learned a good deal of “fact v. fiction” about the movies.  The movies maintain key elements, but there was some dramatization for Hollywood purposes.

• Kid Facts:  The lookout on top of the houseboat frequented by Hazel in the Dolphin Tale movies was deemed too unsafe for filming.  All scenes were filmed looking up into the lookout, which was actually placed on the ground.

Most aquariums are educational facilities that help visitors enhance their knowledge about marine life.  Clearwater Marine Aquarium offered not only an educational experience but showcases inspirational examples of animal perseverance and the necessity to protect marine life.  Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release marine animals and also focuses on environmental conservation.  Located about an hour from Tampa and two hours from Orlando, we totally recommend a trip to Clearwater Marine Aquarium with kids of all ages.

Every so often, we encounter a place that is so fabulous for those traveling with kids that it is worthy of being featured on its own. For more fabulous locations, please check out our other Spotlight features!  Also, be sure to check out our post on Clearwater Beach with kids and our entire category of posts on things to do and places to visit in Florida with kids.