Winter Dolphin

On December 10th, 2005 a fisherman was out on his boat when he found a young dolphin calf entangled in a crab trap's ropes. This dolphin was Winter. The fisherman immediately called rescue teams who came out and transported Winter to Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Winter's long journey to recovery began….and she was going to have to fight hard if she wanted to survive. Due to Winter's severe injuries from the crab trap, the team at CMA were advised to euthanize the dolphin calf but, Winter and her care team were not ready to give up! The team worked tirelessly, providing Winter with 24/7 care but it soon became evident that because of the severity of her injuries, she would in fact lose her tail. There has never been a case where a dolphin lost their entire tail and survived. How would a dolphin without a tail swim? Then, something miraculous happened…Winter began to teach herself to swim again…in her own unique way. Just as a shark would swim, Winter adapted the same side-to-side swimming motion. Winter proved to everyone around her that she was going to fight, she was going to survive…and she did! But how would this new swimming method affect her muscles and spine? Because Winter was now using different muscles and moving her spine in a different motion, this could potentially become painful for her. Fortunately, Kevin Carroll from Hanger Clinic ha

Winter’s inspirational story has touched millions of lives around the world. You may have heard of her in the Dolphin Tale movies.