ORLANDO, Fla. — A baby dolphin who has been in recovery at SeaWorld Orlando for three months and unable to return to the wild received his name this week.
Following more than 7,500 votes from the public, SeaWorld has named the rescued neonatal dolphin "Ridgway." He is named in honor of Dr. Sam Ridgway, a pioneer in marine and mammal medicine and science, a spokesperson for SeaWorld Orlando said.
Other names considered included Theodore, Pierre and Teddy. People were asked to weigh in on the names back in September.
SeaWorld Rescue announced in September that Ridgway would not be able to be released back into the wild due to his age and size. He had no interaction with other dolphins and has no hunting skills, said Jon Peterson, the VP of Zoological Operations at SeaWorld Orlando.
Ridgway was found stranded in the remnants of a crab trap at Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach. Since his rescue, team members have said he has a long road to recovery but has been making progress.
From the moment he was brought into SeaWorld Orlando, team members gave him around-the-clock care. It wasn't long before he began to show some fight in him.
“He started waking up, he started trying to swim, he started vocalizing, he started moving. He went from absolutely not swimming to swimming, to actually waking up,” and taking a bottle from his team of caregivers, Peterson said.