ORLANDO, Fla — A baby dolphin rescued from a crab trap in late July at Clearwater Beach is still in critical condition, but improving, SeaWorld announced in a social media video Thursday.
The rescue and rehabilitation team has been working around the clock to see the dolphin's health get on an upward trend.
When the dolphin arrived in the late afternoon on July 20, SeaWorld did its initial intake, checked it and got in the water with the dolphin, Vice President of Zoological Operations and Head of Rescue Jon Peterson said in a video posted to SeaWorld's Twitter. Signs they were looking for included seeing the dolphin use its tail flukes and swim on its own.
The team did blood work, examined X-rays, and "walked with" the dolphin to get him moving. They needed to get him to swim on his own in the first 48 hours.
There were "lots of blood parameters that are not where we want them to be," Peterson said, when the dolphin arrived.
As the baby dolphin began trying to swim on his own, it let staff know that he's got a chance.
"He's shown us that he has some fight in him," Peterson said.
The rescued bottlenose is considered a neonate, weighing just around 57 pounds with no erupted teeth, Peterson said. Adult bottlenose dolphins weigh around more than 300 pounds, according to SeaWorld. The rescue and rehab center said the dolphin is a "very, very young animal."
In the following weeks since the baby dolphin's rescue, Peterson says the dolphin is still in a critical state but getting closer to stable. The rehab staff noticed the baby dolphin has a suckle reflex so they've worked with getting him onto a bottle to feed.
"This step of getting him onto a bottle is the absolute best thing for him to continue to thrive forward," Peterson says.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium rescued the baby dolphin after it was found tangled in the remnants of a crab trap under Pier 60 at Clearwater Beach. Initially, Clearwater Fire & Rescue said lifeguards first notice an adult dolphin circling in shallow water, which prompted an investigation. As they got closer, they discovered the younger dolphin stuck in the trap and the adult dolphin swam off.
After the adult dolphin never returned and the young dolphin appeared lethargic and not confident in swimming, the decision was made to take the calf to SeaWorld for rehabilitation where it's been receiving around-the-clock care.