Saturday, January 03, 2009

Clearwater Marine Aquarium


Yesterday was Clearwater Beach and the Clearwater Aquarium.

This place was actually pretty interesting. Instead of being an ordinary aquarium, it's really a rescue and rehabilitation center for injured and endangered animals like sea turtles, dolphins, otters, manatees, and so on.

Their claim to fame is a dolphin called Winter that lost its tail to a crab trap. Since then, Winter has taught herself to swim using an unnatural side-to-side motion. The aquarium has also been working with Hangar prosthetics to create a sophisticated artificial tail for her. I was impressed.