Bookable
A volunteer beginning
In 1972 a group of volunteers founded the Clearwater Marine Science Center as a non-profit learning centre. In 1978 the city of Clearwater gave it a disused water treatment plant beside the bay, whose large holding pools suited the care of marine animals, and the first exhibit room opened in 1981.
Rescue and rehabilitation
In 1984 the centre rescued a stranded bottlenose dolphin, Sunset Sam, the first dolphin in Florida to survive a beaching; he could not be released and became its first resident dolphin. In the 1990s the centre took the name Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
Winter’s story
In December 2005 the aquarium rescued Winter, a young bottlenose dolphin who lost her tail after becoming caught in the ropes of a crab trap, and fitted her with a prosthetic tail. Her story inspired the films Dolphin Tale (2011) and Dolphin Tale 2 (2014), partly filmed at the aquarium. Winter died in November 2021.
