On a cold Saturday in December , a fisherman found Winter, then two months old, badly injured and struggling to breathe. Only Clearwater Marine Aquarium was willing to take her.
Necrosis ate away at her tail; her survival was uncertain. But she gained weight by sucking fish smoothies out of Dasani bottles, relearned to swim and eventually moved in with an older dolphin, Panama, who became an adoptive mother to Winter before dying in , at around age The first few years of her life were chronicled in a St. Yates had already been pitching a movie about Winter for years. Winter would appear as herself, with help from computer graphics and animatronics.
And the film would be shot in Pinellas County. Dolphin Tale , which later spawned a sequel, was a boon for the aquarium, which saw annual attendance grow from , to ,, and for Tampa Bay tourism. Winter, though, remained herself, those close to her said over the years. She chowed pounds of capelin and silverside; she swam in her tank, sometimes without her prosthetic tail, propelling herself side-to-side like a fish, rather than up-and-down like dolphins usually do.
When Abby Stone, a longtime trainer who had worked with Winter since her arrival at the aquarium, was asked earlier this year if the dolphin was a Hollywood diva, she laughed.
Auslander said Winter had contracted infections before, but that they had never been as serious. Auslander said the Today show was scheduled to film a segment at the aquarium on Friday. She was a special creature. The statement said the aquarium would remain closed on Friday to provide staff time to grieve. Winter previously experienced intestinal issues — not uncommon among dolphins — but such problems have never affected her like this, Powell had said Thursday. But at the time, he said Winter was not responding to treatment as in the past, adding there was no evidence Winter had the coronavirus.
Winter was two months old when her tail became entangled in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral, which forced its amputation. The film, starring Harry Connick Jr.
Winter was widely known for her prosthetic tail. She was first found in the waters of the Florida coast back in when she was caught in a crab trap. The circulation to her tail was cut off, eventually leading to its loss as she recovered at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Winter was just two-months-old. David Yates, the CEO of the aquarium at the time, recalled the advice his team was given.
Soon, Winter was thriving and her story was so inspirational, it became the basis for the movies "Dolphin Tale" and "Dolphin Tale 2.
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