Dolphin Tale the inspirational story about Winter, the tailless bottlenose dolphin, is scheduled for release this weekend.  While her story of rehabilitation is remarkable and certainly deserving of Hollywood’s attention, the movie only touches on Winter’s amazing rescue by Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute’s (HSWRI) Marine Mammal Stranding Team and other animal care experts who struggled for almost an entire day to save her life.

On the morning of December 10, 2005 Teresa Mazza, research assistant for HSWRI received a call from Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FFWC) asking her to respond to a call from a fisherman who had found a baby dolphin tangled in a crab pot line in Mosquito Lagoon in Canaveral National Seashore, Florida. 

When Teresa arrived on the scene, the dolphin was bleeding and gasping for air. Her tail already destroyed by her struggles and lack of circulation to it.  She was sure the dolphin was dying. Teresa called her colleague and friend Claire Surrey at the FFWC, who came right out to help. There were able to guide the dolphin to a sandbar and took turns holding her in the across their laps in the frigid water.  Teresa said, “When we first got close she was squealing in pain and freaking out.  But once I had her in the shallow water, she lay with her head in my lap. I kept splashing her and tried to shade her from the sun to stop her burning.”   Teresa and Claire continued to monitor her vital signs, and did their best to keep the young dolphin calm.

Finally at dusk, a SeaWorld rescue van arrived. Teresa, Claire and a team from Harbor Branch carried the baby dolphin ashore in a stretcher.  It was a five-hour trip to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, her new home, where she would be named Winter.

The dolphin squealed loudly as they took her away on a stretcher. "You could tell she still had a lot of energy and fight left in her," Teresa said. "It's a good sign, actually."

Winter did survive, but her tail did not.  Those hours she spent trapped by the crap pot lines cut off circulation and her tail rotted off taking three vertebrae with it.  But we all know by now the story has a happy ending.  Winter was fitted with a prosthetic tail to aid in her recovery and she is now the star in a Hollywood movie.

While this is an incredible story, this is just one example of the lengths to which our Marine Mammal Stranding Team and other marine mammal specialist will go to in order to care for these wonderful animals on a daily basis. 

Click here to learn how you can help prevent injuries to dolphins.