🕯️ LEGENDS GARDEN
🐬 Winter
Common bottlenose dolphin · Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Clearwater, Florida
Lives in Legends Garden
Winter was found in December 2005 as a two-month-old calf tangled in a crab trap line near Cape Canaveral, and lost her tail flukes. The Hanger Clinic built her a silicone-and-carbon prosthetic tail, the first ever fitted to a dolphin, and the story became the 2011 film Dolphin Tale and its 2014 sequel. She lived 16 years at Clearwater Marine Aquarium and died there on 11 November 2021; her ashes were returned to the Gulf of Mexico that January.
What they do
Swims by whipping her flukeless tail stump side to side like a fish instead of up and down, then rolls onto her side so a keeper can slide the prosthetic tail on..
Unnervingly patient - she let strangers fit hardware to her body every single day for sixteen years.
Lore
- ★Her tail flukes were lost to a crab trap line when she was about two months old, near Cape Canaveral in December 2005.
- ★Her prosthetic tail was designed by the Hanger Clinic and, per the aquarium, slowed the damage her sideways swimming was doing to her spine.
- ★Dolphin Tale (2011) starred her alongside Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman; Dolphin Tale 2 (2014) added Hope, another rescued dolphin.
- ★The aquarium keeps her prosthetics on site as a memorial and returned her ashes to the Gulf of Mexico in January 2022.
Helping the real one
💛 Support Winter via Clearwater Marine AquariumClearwater Marine Aquarium is a 501(c)(3) rescue hospital; this link resolves to their live "Donate to Animal Care and Rescue Fund" page, which funds veterinary equipment, rescued dolphin care and rescue-team supplies. This opens their own official page. Money never touches this site.
Where this comes from
- CBS News 'Dolphin Tale' star Winter dies at 16 ↗
- Clearwater Marine Aquarium Remembering Winter the Dolphin ↗
Every link here was checked twice before it was published. If one is dead or wrong, tell us.