Baby Dolphin Rescued At Clearwater Beach Has New Name, New Home And Is On Road To Recovery (2024)

Community Corner

The little dolphin is still in critical but stable condition, and will remain at SeaWorld for the foreseeable future.

Posted Sun, Oct 23, 2022 at 6:01 pm ET|Updated Sun, Oct 23, 2022 at 6:14 pm ET

Last month, SeaWorld Orlando, which has been caring for the dolphin calf since its rescue, invited the public to vote for one of four names: Ridgway, Theodore, Pierre and Teddy.

With the votes now tallied, the majority of the more than 7,500 people who voted on SeaWorld's website opted to name the dolphin "Ridgway."

Ridgway will continue to make his home at SeaWorld for the foreseeable future.

Last month, the Southeast Stranding Network of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which determines whether rescued dolphins can be returned to the wild or must be kept in captivity, announced that the baby dolphin is not able to survive in the wild on his own due to his young age and lack of survival skills at the time of his rescue.

Nicholas Ricci, senior animal care specialist at SeaWorld, estimates the dolphin was about 2 months old when he swam from the safety of his mother's side and became entangled in the crab trap line off Pier 60.

Lifeguard Justin West was on duty at the Tower 5 lifeguard station that day when he noticed a dolphin circling the area where something was bobbing in the water. West grabbed his rescue board and paddled out to investigate.

The object bobbing in the water turned out to be the baby dolphin and the circling dolphin was his fretful mother. West discovered a crab trap line wrapped several times around the baby dolphin's tail, or fluke.

West tried cutting the line with a pair of shears he had on him, but was unable to hold the frightened dolphin steady, so he summoned fellow lifeguard Scott Mattis to help.

With the water deeper than the lifeguards could stand in, West helped keep the dolphin from struggling and injuring himself while Mattis cut the dolphin free. Along with lifeguard Georgia Toney, they moved the calf to shallower water beneath the shade of the pier where they calmed the calf while awaiting the arrival of a team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium certified by Southeast Stranding Network to rescue dolphins.

The rescue team spent hours attempting to reunite the baby dolphin with his mother who waited nearby. But each time the team released the little calf, it had difficulty remaining buoyant and kept trying to swim toward the shore.

Eventually, the mother dolphin left the area and the Southeast Stranding Network decided the calf should be transported to the nearest authorized Marine Mammal Stranding Network facility with room to take on another dolphin in need of rehabilitation.

See related stories:

• Video Shows Baby Dolphin Now Swimming After Clearwater Beach Rescue
• Dolphin Calf Rescued From Crab Trap By Clearwater Beach Lifeguards

Nicci said he was concerned when the dolphin arrived at SeaWorld and he saw the condition of his flukes.

"That (crab trap) line had damaged the tail so badly that we were scared that he was going to lose half of his tail," Nicci said.

Fortunately, the tail is healing on its own. Nevertheless, the baby dolphin remains in critical, but stable condition.

NOAA said it placed the dolphin with SeaWorld for long-term care because of the facility's ability to meet and exceed the dolphin's unique social and medical needs required for him to thrive.

"We have nearly 60 years of experience in the care and study of dolphins at every age and throughout their entire lifespan, from birth to geriatric care, and that knowledge and expertise is what makes extraordinary recoveries like these possible," said Jon Peterson, vice president of zoological operations at SeaWorld Orlando.

"We are very grateful to the lifeguards who first spotted this little guy struggling in the water under the pier and called authorities for help. We are equally grateful for our partners in the Southeast Stranding Network that handled the rescue and delivered him into our care," Peterson said. "While he still has a long road to full recovery, we're proud of the great progress he has made so far. He has captured everyone's heart and we are thrilled to invite animal lovers to join us on his journey of hope and resiliency."

"Caring for rescued dolphins long-term requires a great deal of commitment from experienced and dedicated professionals," said Erin Fougères, Marine Mammal Stranding Program administrator at NOAA Fisheries Southeast. "We're grateful for the ongoing support of organizations like SeaWorld and other members of the Southeast Region Marine Mammal Stranding Network, without whom these stories of rescue and survival would not be possible."

Considered a neonate, the rescued bottlenose weighed just around 57 pounds (mature adults weigh in at more than 300 pounds) with no erupted teeth and was still nursing. Though breathing on his own upon arrival at SeaWorld, he was unresponsive and in a coma.

He was immediately moved into intensive care and, less than 30 minutes later, SeaWorld's on-site laboratory and veterinary team diagnosed the cause of his catatonic state, isolating his critical condition to a life-threatening electrolyte imbalance, pneumonia and serious injuries to his fins from prolonged lack of blood flow due to the restrictive lines in which he had become entangled.

The veterinary and animal care specialist teams worked around the clock, providing hour-by-hour critical medical care, adjusting water salinity and walking with him in the pool, supporting his weight until he regained the strength to swim on his own.

He learned to take a bottle for feedings of special neonatal dolphin formula developed by SeaWorld and is receiving this specialized care from the SeaWorld veterinary staff.

He continues to progress in his physical recovery, recovering from his respiratory illness and undergoing medical procedures to remove necrotic tissue resulting from his injuries. He has gained more than 10 pounds since his arrival.

"Now, all of the teeth on his upper jaw have completely erupted and it looks like the lower teeth are going to be coming in pretty soon," Ricci said. "It's been a lot of fun to see him develop and grow. He has gained over 10 pounds in the one month he has been with us. He learned how to take a bottle fast. He's very bright. He learns things really quickly."

Dolphin Rehabilitation Is Complex Process

Rehabilitation and medical treatments are highly specialized and challenging due to a variety of factors including logistics, physiology, and anatomy, noted NOAA.

"The experience gained by providing care to such a diverse set of species, critical care to rescued animals, and specialized care to neonatal and geriatric cases as is typical in a zoological setting like SeaWorld, provides insight and knowledge into overall animal health and wellness needs that cannot be replicated by the study of animals outside of human care alone," Fougères said.

"Compared to other species, dolphin rehabilitation is extremely challenging due to the fragile nature of dolphin health and the high mortality rates dolphins face when ill or injured," Peterson said.

"The first two weeks of dolphin rehabilitation are critical and are usually indicative of the dolphin's prognosis. Through years of extensive research and experience, SeaWorld has revitalized the dolphin intake process and developed a unique dolphin care system that involves conducting medical tests and procedures immediately upon intake, substantially increasing survival rates among rescued dolphins," he said.

"SeaWorld animal care experts discovered that by using minimal assistance techniques and encouraging dolphins to use their own muscle mass, it helps dolphins build strength and results in increased rates of successful rehabilitation," Peterson said. "Through this process, SeaWorld veterinarians and animal care experts were able to help the dolphin begin to swim on his own and learn to suckle from a bottle relatively quickly."

Once Ridgway makes a full physical recovery and reaches an ideal weight, the dolphin will move from his critical care pool where he is monitored around the clock to join a pod of dolphins in residence in the SeaWorld Orlando park with whom he is compatible.

Assimilating into a social group will help him acquire interpersonal skills and provide the interactions he needs to thrive. When he has settled into his new pod, the public will be invited to come and see him in the park, Peterson said.

He noted that SeaWorld's goal is always to return rescued animals to their natural environments. However, certain health conditions can make survival without human care unlikely or impossible.

In those instances, wildlife authorities determine whether an animal can be returned and if not, accredited zoos and aquariums, like SeaWorld provide long-term care and permanent homes for those in need.

This dolphin's situation, while tragic, is not an isolated incident and serves as an important reminder of the dangers that "ghost fishing" poses to marine animal life," Fougères said. "Fishing nets, traps, long lines, ropes and other gear lost or abandoned in the ocean trap and kill thousands of marine animals every year. It is essential that the public does their part to maintain clean and safe waters — free of debris, trash and fishing equipment — to keep marine wildlife safe and healthy.

About His Namesake

Over a more than 60-year career, Dr. Sam Ridgway created a legacy as a pioneer in marine mammal medicine and science and a foundation for their conservation, particularly with his discoveries about bottlenose dolphins.

Known affectionately by his colleagues as the “Dolphin Doctor” and as the father of marine mammal medicine, Ridgway continued that work up until his final days. The 86-year-old died in his Point Loma, California, home, surrounded by surrounded by family and friends, on July 10 from a chronic illness.

According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, throughout his career, Ridgway worked to understand the behavior, physiology and acoustics of marine mammals.

In the early 1960s, he helped found the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program — a classified program to study the complexity and intelligence of dolphins, their sonar skills and their ability to descend to dizzying depths.

By the time the Navy’s program was declassified in 1992, it was a multimillion-dollar project not only studying dolphins, sea lions and whales but also training them to aid Navy divers by detecting mines, experimental weaponry and enemy swimmers, as well as recovering hardware and weaponry fired or dropped into the ocean.

He developed dolphin anesthesia and other marine mammal medicines, as well as techniques to study the animals’ hearing where no data existed previously. He pioneered methods for studying them while they swam freely in the open ocean.