Baby dolphin gravely injured in crab trap lines is rescued and rehabilitated

On July 20, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) called SeaWorld Orlando with a dire emergency. An infant dolphin was found by lifeguards, tangled and gravely injured in crab trap lines under a pier in Clearwater, Fla. The dolphin required immediate care to try and save his life, and hours spent searching for his mother and pod were unsuccessful, leaving him orphaned.

"[NOAA] asked SeaWorld if we were willing to take the animal in for rehab," says John Peterson, vice president of zoological operations at SeaWorld Orlando. "We said yes and about three and a half hours later, he arrived at our stranding pool."

SeaWorld is just one of the partners that make up the Southeast Stranding Network, a group of volunteer emergency response teams that respond to marine mammals and sea turtles found sick, injured or stranded, or that have passed away, either on land or in the water.

Once safely in the care of veterinarians, it was clear the dolphin's injuries were critical and the outlook was grim. "He came in and was in a state that we were [watching] hour-by-hour — what you would call critically intense care," says Peterson. "We really weren't sure if he was going to make it to the next morning."

"What we found out was his electrolytes were way out of balance and his bloodwork was going in the wrong direction," he adds. "So we quickly came up with a plan to actually take our saltwater [pool] and turn it into fresh water, and use some reverse osmosis along with IVs and subcutaneous fluids around the clock."

While the rehabilitation experts quickly assessed the dolphin's vitals and feverishly worked to stabilize him, they also had to plan for the worst possible scenario — what steps they'd need to take if he did not improve and his quality of life began to deteriorate to the point where he'd need to be euthanized.

But quick action and round-the-clock care started to yield encouraging results. "He came out of his catatonic state about 48 hours after arriving here," Peterson says, "and started to really advance quickly on taking baby formula from a bottle and swimming on his own, all the things you want to see."

Taking food through a bottle was an especially good sign: "The bottle is cute, but technically it's actually making him think," Peterson says. "It's making him have to work. He's got to swim to try and stay to that nipple. It's a technique that strengthens him very quickly."

Now, two months after the distressed dolphin arrived at SeaWorld, his care team is optimistically looking forward to what's next. "As you hit these milestones you get excited, and we've gotten to a milestone now where we actually want to talk about it because we believe he's so strong that the next steps are going to be huge for him," says Peterson.

While SeaWorld has come under fire in the past from organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who disagree with its containment and showing of marine animals like dolphins and whales, NOAA says SeaWorld parks are among their list of organizations who are authorized to rehabilitate injured marine animals.

Currently there are seven organizations cleared by NOAA to rehabilitate marine mammals in the Southeast, including SeaWorld Orlando, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network and Texas State Aquarium. "All organizations authorized by NOAA to rehabilitate stranded marine mammals must meet a minimum set of standards," Erin Fougères, the marine mammal stranding program administrator for NOAA Fisheries Southeast tells Yahoo Life. "At the time of this dolphin's rescue, SeaWorld was the closest authorized rehabilitation facility that had space and personnel to accept this dolphin for treatment."

"Minimizing transport time for stranded and stressed dolphins is critical for their survival; therefore, when an animal is deemed a good candidate for rehabilitation, we work with our network partners to determine the closest facility that has the capability to accept the animal,” Fougères adds.

NOAA also deemed the neonatal dolphin non-releasable because he hadn't developed many of the instincts required for a young dolphin to survive in the wild, compounded by losing his mother and pod. "Dolphins learn everything from their moms, so he doesn't know how to interact yet," says Peterson. "He doesn't know how to be social yet. He knows how to be social with us because that's all he's seen."

"This is where SeaWorld’s infrastructure, our understanding of pods and social groupings and all that come together," he adds. "We have a mom with a year-and-a-half-old calf out at our dolphin nursery. We have another, what we call 'nanny' dolphin — she's had about five of her own calves and she's really good with calves, so we're going to set him up to get into that social structure so he can learn how to be a dolphin."

The process of meeting and bonding with his new family will happen behind the scenes at SeaWorld in its marine mammal support facility, where the care team can closely monitor the progress while the dolphin continues to heal. Eventually, he'll be transferred to the dolphin nursery to connect with and continue learning with the rest of the young dolphins. Guests visiting the park will be able to see the rescued dolphin in the nursery, but there are currently no plans to include the newcomer in future dolphin performances.

"Our only focus at this time is to slowly integrate the baby dolphin into the dolphin nursery pool to help him learn how to communicate and grow socially with other dolphins," a SeaWorld representative confirms.

Peterson says he hopes sharing the baby dolphin's story opens eyes to the danger litter can cause to marine life. "This is preventable," Peterson says. "If you've got a line out in the water that you're not tending, bring it back in. Half to probably 70% of all we deal with has to do with human intervention — which means we did something that caused this problem."

"If I can ask one thing of everybody out there — when you're on the beach, you're around the stream, or you're walking through the woods — if you see trash, pick it up, throw it away and recycle," he says. "And that will actually help [lessen] cases like this and others that we have to rehabilitate."

As the new dolphin settles in at SeaWorld, his caregivers have agreed it's time he gets a new name. "We're very superstitious," Peterson admits. "Some people say, 'Why didn't you name him right when he came in?' Well, when you do rehab, you have to guard your emotions and your heart because things don't always go this well."

"He got to a point where everybody feels comfortable," says Peterson. "Everybody says he's strong, we agree he's going to continue moving forward, so we're ready to give him a name."

SeaWorld invited the public to help choose the dolphin's new name from four options, including Ridgway (after late veterinarian Sam Ridgway, known as the father of marine mammal medicine), Theodore, Pierre and Teddy. While voting ended on Sept. 26th, there's been no announcement of the dolphin's name. SeaWorld plans to share an update on their social media channels once a name has been chosen.

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