Summer's Arrival!

Summer has arrived! With Dolphin Research Center staff and three marine mammal veterinarians caring for her the entire way, DRC’s newest family member was flown in comfort from her rehabilitation home at Clearwater Marine Aquarium on Tuesday. She did great with her travel and is now comfortably swimming in our medical pool. To ensure a smooth transition, she’ll remain for a while in the med pool, gradually becoming acclimated to the water of Florida Bay. This will also give her the opportunity to get to know her human caregivers who will introduce her to her new dolphin family when she moves into the dolphin lagoons.

Since our founding in 1984, it has been part of DRC’s mission to provide permanent homes for marine mammals in need. Once we received word that this young Atlantic spotted dolphin would join our family, several staff members spent weeks getting to know her up in Clearwater. Additional staff traveled there in recent days to prepare for the smoothest transportation possible. The costs of providing for her acclimation, air transport, and expert 24-hour care that she will receive are considerable. If you would like to help us with those costs, you can do so in the Membership & Donations area of our website. Click here. 

All of us in the DRC family thank the staff and volunteers of Clearwater Marine Aquarium for their dedicated rehabilitation of Summer. Thanks also to pilot Robert Gaynor and the PilotsNPaws organization for flying Summer and the team home to Marathon!

We’ll keep everyone posted on Summer’s progress and hope that you’ll have the opportunity to meet her in the future!