Thanks to SeaWorld, Christmas Comes Early to Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

It’s been a month since Clearwater Marine Aquarium suffered the loss of their beloved dolphin Winter from an intestinal torsion after thriving under their care for sixteen years. She has left behind an incredible legacy that has proven to be beneficial to both people and animals alike.

While the aquarium remains in mourning over the celebrity marine mammals, things are about to change thanks to SeaWorld Orlando.

This past Tuesday, the aquarium announced that a rescued dolphin named Apollo, a two-year-old juvenile bottlenose dolphin has found his forever home at its dolphin habitat. In fact, he’s the first to join the family since Winter’s passing last month.

Apollo was first rescued on May 15th off Playalinda Beach, Florida, approximately twenty miles from where Winter was rescued in 2005 as a two-month-old calf. He was suffering from parasites on his dorsal fin, pectoral fins, and fluke. He was taken to SeaWorld Orlando to undergo a long seven-month rehabilitation.

SeaWorld’s rescue team had hoped for him to return to his natural habitat once his health improved to the point of full recovery. However, this would not be the case. The United States National Marine Fisheries Service, which overlooks the protection of marine mammals in both the wild and in human care, performed a hearing test on Apollo during his time in Orlando. Unfortunately, the results showed he was suffering from atypical hearing loss that prevented him from being able to echolocate when searching for prey. As a result, the federal government determined him to be “non-releasable”.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium was chosen to become Apollo’s home because of its experience of providing excellent care for disabled dolphins who suffer from hearing loss. He will live at the aquarium’s Dolphin Complex habitat with four bottlenose dolphins: Hope, PJ, Nicholas, and Hemmingway. The habitat is also home to two rough-toothed dolphins named Rudolph and Rex.

Apollo is not the only animal calling Clearwater home in time for Christmas. Joining him at his new home is a green sea turtle named Boba Fett. Named after the iconic StarWars character and star of the upcoming Book of Boba Fett series, Boba was taken into SeaWorld’s care in May 2018. He was found floating in the water and unable to dive in Volusia County, Florida. Upon evaluation, Boba Fett was found to have a severely fractured shell that likely came from a boat strike.

SeaWorld veterinarians who helped with his rehabilitation say that he came to them with a deep wound across the top of his shell that ran down the center of his back, which had affected his spine.

Once he received treatment, his wound healed, but Boba continued to display a condition known as positive buoyancy. Turtles who suffer from this condition cannot dive below the waterline and use their flippers. Because they’re unable to dive below the water in order to search for food, these turtles are unlikely to survive unless they’re in human care.

Over the four years Boba Fett spent at SeaWorld, he has tripled in size and gained twenty pounds. Green sea turtles can grow up to four feet long and weigh up to three-hundred and fifty pounds. Their average life expectancy is around thirty to forty years, but Myrtle, a green sea turtle who has lived at the New England Aquarium since 1970, is believed to be between eighty-to-a hundred years old. That’s a testimony to how human care can help animals thrive well past their normal life spans.

While Clearwater Marine Aquarium is experiencing its first Christmas without Winter, the animal care team is overjoyed to welcome not one, but two new family members to their facility. This is especially coming off the heels of Winter’s rescue anniversary and her November passing.

After all, December is truly a magical month around the world, no matter where you are.