Clearwater Marine Aquarium was already famous for Hope and Winter - who starred in the "Dolphin Tales" movies. Now, Yeti and Zamboni are the newest residents here.
They were rescued for cold shock in February and treated at ZooTampa. Now, they're being cared for in a new tank that has a bottom that can lift them out of the pool for treatment.
The new center is home to two manatees who suffered from cold stress last winter. They will be cared for until scientists believe they can be released back into the wild.
The gentle creatures have been beset by collisions with boat propellers, cold snaps and a loss of seagrass they rely on for food. More than a thousand manatees were lost in the Indian River Lagoon on Florida's east coast three years ago, after the grass was smothered by pollution.
James "Buddy" Powell grew up in Crystal River studying manatees. He's one of the world's foremost experts on the mammals and is chief zoological officer at the aquarium.
"When we first started working with manatees in Crystal River, there was only about 60 manatees there. Now there's over 1,000 in that particular region. They've had the longest period of protection in the entire state. That's the good news," he said during the ribbon cutting Friday.
“The note of caution is what happened over on the east coast is that within just a year, over 1,000 died - as many manatees as we thought were in the entire state of Florida when I first started working on them. So that just shows you how tenuous their predicament is and why we cannot let up on trying to continue to protect them," Powell said.
And he foresees the demand for their services are only going to increase over time.
Tiffany Burns is president of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership and director of animal programs at ZooTampa.
"These animals have faced many challenges, especially over the past few years," Burns said. "They've had increasing numbers of animals that needed to be rescued. And this is placed an immense pressure on existing facilities. In 2023, there were 80 manatees in the west part of Florida that needed to be rescued. So with numbers like that, you can imagine how important facilities like this one is to not only the species but to the state of Florida."
Clearwater Marine Aquarium is one of only 10 manatee hospitals in the state.
They're part of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership, which includes Sea World, Disney, ZooTampa, Mote Marine Laboratory and the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton — even as far away as the zoo in Columbus, Ohio, to treat these gentle creatures.
“We've come full circle to the research, the conservation and now here at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, being able to do not only the rescue part that we've been doing, but also the rehabilitation part as well,” Powell said. “
"Our facility is now set up to help all leave some of the demand that we have seen over the past few years, the manatees that have been in need of rescue because of injuries and ailments. And so we're very excited now to be in this position to help these individual animals as well with our research, the population of manatees as a whole," he said.
This is the first phase of their aquarium’s Rising Tides project, which aims to raise $32 million over the next six years.
In addition to an already planned expansion of its manatee rehab facility, the aquarium will expand its facilities to help dolphins, sea turtles — and for the first time, sharks, albino alligators, penguins and California sea lions.
The aquarium also plans to break ground on a new marine rescue center in the Central American nation of Belize. Its CMA Research Institute has rescued and released manatees for 20 years in Belize, which has the highest known density of Antillean manatees in the world.
"This is a momentous event for us here at Clearwater Marine Aquarium and the Tampa Bay area,” said aquarium CEO Joe Handy. “And beyond, this has been years in the making, we started this project with the idea of stepping into the gap and providing a rescue rehabilitation center for manatees. And now today we have brought that to fruition."
"We know that the connectivity between humans and animals is extremely important and it's part of our mission. It is our responsibility to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to appreciate these beautiful majestic animals."
