The Clearwater Marine Aquarium is back open after getting a one-two punch from hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The Clearwater beach attraction and marine rehabilitation center reopened Friday night for a special event after being closed for several weeks, after the facility was flooded with 4 feet of water during Helene.
The reopened facility is debuting Aqua Lanterns: A Chinese Festival of Lights. It includes illuminated sculptures up to 13 feet tall of whales, turtles, dolphins, sharks and jellyfish. Many of the 30 lit-up displays are next to the real animals in the aquarium’s tanks. It’s open nights through the end of December.
It’s the first time the aquarium has opened after it was flooded during Hurricane Helene. Many of the rehabilitation tanks for manatees — which had just opened several months earlier — were damaged by the saltwater and many of their life support systems were inoperable.
The two newest manatees being treated there, named Yeti and Zamboni, were transported to ZooTampa at Lowry Park. They will remain there until the aquarium tanks can be repaired.
Sea turtles being rehabilitated were also temporarily transferred to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton. Their dolphins were unharmed in a three-story habitat that was built to code in 2020.
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 — and even as far away as the zoo in Columbus, Ohio, to treat these gentle creatures.
