Size

Winter and Hope’s permanent home is a Fifty five foot square tank that in the 70’s was a sewage treatment plant. I cannot believe the government regulations for pool size allows two dolphins to live in an area this small. Adult dolphins are usually between six to eight feet in length. Relatively speaking that would be like two people sharing a room 42 feet long and 21 feet wide for the rest of their lives.

       Promises

In the summer of  1990 Clearwater Marine Science Center reported plans for a newer and bigger aquarium. It never happened. 

May of 2011 Clearwater Marine Aquarium (new name) announced plans for a 12 million dollar expansion to coincide with the release of Dolphin Tale Two movie (national release tomorrow 9/12/2014). It never happened.

February 2013 Clearwater Marine Aquarium again announces plans for new 160 million dollar, 200,000 square-foot aquarium in downtown Clearwater. This would include 2,000-seat dolphin stadium. According to the Tampa Bay Times it will need to raise millions from donors and corporations, as well as from the city, county, state and federal governments. No donations from the millions made from two movies? Hmmm!

November 2013 (9 months later) Clearwater Marine Aquarium reports they may have to scale back size of new facility. Chief Operating Officer Frank Dame is quoted in the Tampa Bay Times as saying the new 150,000 (note it was 200,000 back in February) square-foot aquarium could draw up to 2.1 million visitors a year. He is also quoted as saying “The important thing for us not to lose sight of is: This is going to be Winter’s new home. Do you need 200,000 square feet to tell the story or can you do it in 150,000 feet? I don’t think it will have much of an impact.”

August 2014 after Ric O’Barry releases a video entitled “The Dolphin Truth”  www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqQlPdqEIjQ   and Cleawater Marine Aquarium unveils yet another plan that is not going to use dolphins for shows and yet David Yates, the aquarium’s CEO’s twitter handle was @Wintersagent until “The Dolphin Truth” was released and then within hours it was changed to @RRRand More. Please watch the video to see the new plans that have a very small tank for the dolphins in comparison to the rest of the facility. Will it happen? Time will tell. 

                               Condition

Clearwater Marine Aquarium has been cited five times by the United States Department of Agriculture for problems that have the potential to harm marine animals as reported in the Tampa Bay Times in August of 2013. The Times reports that between September of 2010 and June of 2013 USDA inspectors cited the Clearwater Aquarium for violations regarding chipping paint and rust in the dolphin pool, salinity levels being too high, storing fresh food in poor conditions,  failing to perform certain bacteria tests on the pool water. All were violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. These conditions have been corrected.

 

                        Please note tank conditions. Rust, chipped paint and what looks like mold

      Staff

First and foremost I want to say that every time I have visited the aquarium the volunteer staff and trainers show great care for these animals.

I am so disappointed that volunteer staff seems to be undereducated about dolphins and readily gives out answers such as Hope can’t be released because she doesn’t know what a shark looks like.

On one of my first visits to Clearwater Aquarium in 2012 I asked why Hope and Winter were separated when Winter was obviously distressed. Above picture is also Winter and Hope kept apart. Staff member said they would possibly fight. According to a trainer that is entirely false.

Nik who stays alone in his own separate pool with no shade had a male partner named Indy for six years. Indy died and now Nick is alone. On three separate occasions different staff members told me that “in the wild” male dolphins prefer to live alone. This is totally untrue. Male dolphins actually form alliances with at least one other dolphin and these alliances may last a lifetime. Some male alliances will actually team up with other male alliances to form what is called a coalition to subdue a female. They will come and go with original pod but rarely will any dolphin male or female live in isolation.

First Dolphin Tale movie reportedly made 95 million dollars but Winter and Hope who made it all possible not receiving any noticeable benefits. 

This is a review that I took off of the internet. It sums up the Clearwater Marine Aquarium

January 22, 2014

This has to be the worst marine/aquarium I’ve ever visited. It’s billed as a sort of hospital for sick sea creatures but this is just a sympathy grabber to get you to part with your money. The pathetically small holding tanks look to be cruel to the dolphins and the exhibits are far outnumbered by the masses of people working there as ushers, souvenir shop workers, etc. If this is the price to pay to save 2 dolphins and a couple of turtles then maybe they need to rethink their strategy.

                                    Sunset Sam

First Dolphin to Become Permanent Resident at Clearwater  Science Center

This is the second issue in a series for this blog of information that I hope will bring an awareness of Clearwater Marine Aquarium that holds dolphins.

In 1984 Sunset Sam was the first stranded dolphin to be placed permanently at Clearwater Marine Science Center as it was called at that time. I have a copy of the Marine Mammal Inventory Report from the early 90’s that document Sunset Sam’s approximate birth year as 1979. The original plan was to release him but the powers that be at the Center claimed that there was damage to Sam’s eye and that he would be shark bait. Other veterinarians disagreed and wanted Sam released. At one time there was a campaign to free Sam but the Clearwater Center won out and stopped his release.

Dolphins have a special sense called echo-location that enables them to “see” even in the darkness. Sounds are projected into the water from their “melon” or forehead. These sounds bounce back as images through the lower jaw and into the inner ear which enable the dolphin to detect distance, speed, direction, density and even the internal structure of objects, much like an x-ray.

It seems inexcusable to hold a highly intelligent animal that exhibits no violence even through capture in a soundless small concrete tank.

I have been in the water with wild dolphins and listened and felt their sonar as they scanned my body, never getting close enough to be touched. To watch and hear them communicate with one another is thrilling. I watched one dolphin take a piece of seaweed and play tag with another dolphin. Then there is the moment you look into their eyes and know there is an intelligent being within. In an instant they are gone, swimming away with their family.

I can’t begin to imagine what Sunset Sam who had experienced all of this for five years of his life have all of this taken away and be placed in a barren, small, concrete tank with no life of any kind, no fish to chase and eat, no moving water, swimming in small circles rather than choosing how and where to swim for the rest of his 17 years of life.

Instead he was taught to do things that did not come naturally but would do for food (dead fish) and human contact which was the primary contact in his life. Doing silly things like holding a paint brush in front of a canvas, dabbing colors to make humans happy. Comments made that he was so happy. I tend to doubt this being he died at approximately the age of 22. 

 

                                     Times photo: Jim Damaske 2000

Dr.Randy Wells of Mote Marine in Sarasota, Florida who has been studying Bottlenose dolphins since 1970 says that he personally knows of dolphins that are in their 40s in Sarasota Bay.

Jennifer Semro

Next post in a few days

Due to the amount of research necessary to post another page I will need another day or two. In the meantime I am posting a picture of Panama who was like a mother to Winter. She passed last year.

                               Welcome to my new blog!

Please watch this space for important information regarding the new movie "Dolphin Tale Two," and the stars Winter and Hope that made it all possible with Clearwater Marine Aquarium that is their permanent home.

                                                                  Winter

                          Who I am, what I hope to accomplish and why!

I got involved in 1989 when the dolphins were being slaughtered in the tuna nets. This soon expanded to other issues that involved dolphins, such as pollution, and captivity.

In 1990 I formed Dolphin Defenders, a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to the protection of dolphins everywhere. From 1990-1998 I lectured at schools, and any organization that asked for a speaker on the subject. In 1995 I wrote a book titled  “A Dolphin of Many Colors”. It's primarily a children’s book but can be enjoyed by all. 

My passion for the dolphins has never wavered. I have been going to Clearwater Marine Aquarium since 2012 and witnessed how these and other dolphins are cared for. The first time I went there I could not believe how small their living quarters were. There were 3 dolphins at the time. Panama, Winter and Hope. Panama died September 25, 2013. As time went on and I revisited the aquarium I saw Winter change from a dolphin that swam the small parameter and interacted with Hope to a spiritless animal that stays to herself of just floats motionless. Every time I go there I rarely see any interaction between trainers and dolphins unless there is a paying customer getting their picture taken. No toys or other stimulus for them. 

There is another dolphin by the name of Nik that lives there also. He lives in a very small pool with no shelter from the Sun on the second level. He does performances occasionally. I have only seen him interact with a trainer once, and that was to “paint a canvas for a customer”. Other than that when I visited him I was the only visitor.

I have been trying for months to get someone from the news media to confront this issue but no one has even returned my calls or emails. Then last week I received an email regarding “The Dolphin Truth” featuring Ric O’Barry, Dr. Maddalena Bearzi, Naomi Rose, Lori Marino, among others that are exposing all the “dirty little secrets” as Ric O’Barry always says.

This is my first blog and hope you will come back as I reveal the layers of deficiencies at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Tomorrow I will talk about when and how Clearwater Marine Aquarium began.

Jennifer Semro

Welcome to my new blog. This page under construction.