Winter: The Dolphin That Lost Its Fin
Not all centers that exhibit animals are zoos that keep their inhabitants imprisoned. Some are recovery centers that house animals that can no longer live in freedom ; one of the best examples is Winter, the dolphin who lost her fin.
The rescue of Winter, the dolphin that lost its fin
In early December 2010, workers at the Clearwater Marine Center in Florida (United States) found Winter, a two-month-old baby dolphin. It had become trapped in fishing nets and the lines had cut off the circulation of its rear fin.
They transferred her to their center, which is also a hospital for marine animals, and immediately began her treatment. Winter was feeling better, but her fin was deteriorating and there was nothing they could do to save her.
Winter struggled to move on. He learned to swim in a different way, and despite the great change in his life he made a full recovery and grew up like a normal dolphin. Winter exceeded all the expectations that had been formed around her: her will to live could against all adversity.
Recovery and prosthetics
The rear fin is a must for a dolphin. With it they push themselves to swim, and they have no other part of their body prepared to fulfill this function. Winter needed a rear fin.
So they made him a prosthesis. It was the first to be made of this type: a dolphin had never been known to lose its rear fin and have survived. A well-known human prosthetics company took on the challenge of giving Winter his fin back, and they succeeded.
A team was formed that included experts from different fields, and during the construction of this fin they circumvented the many problems that were encountered. The biggest of these was getting the fin attached to Winter’s tail without it slipping or hurting his skin.
Finally, they designed a glove-like fastening system: the prosthesis is fixed with a kind of plastic harness, which is covered with a large cover made of a material similar to latex. It is flexible and light, but also resistant, and most importantly: it sticks to the skin without causing damage.
The movie about Winter
Winter the Dolphin Who Lost Her Fin has inspired two films that became a box office success. In the original version they were titled Dolphin Tale , but it was translated in Spain as The great adventure of Winter the dolphin , while in Latin America as Winter – the dolphin .
In these film productions the true story is told, but with a few poetic licenses. Kyle, an 11-year-old boy, finds Winter stranded and injured on a beach. The film follows the story of friendship and overcoming of the two, as the dolphin loses her fin and gets her famous prosthesis.
Winter’s new partner: Hope
In real life this also happened. Dolphins are social animals that need to live in groups. The dolphin chosen to accompany Winter from then on was Hope. Hope had been found when she was barely two months old, along with her deceased mother.
Hope was bottle-fed for a few months, but she came to the center so young she couldn’t go back to nature. His mother would have taught him to fish, but he had no company to learn those skills; so Hope was transferred to Winter’s tank and they have lived together ever since.
Winter and Hope are two animals that could not have survived in the wild. There are exceptional occasions when human beings are capable of caring for and rehabilitating animals that need it, in order to give them a future in which they can be happy and live safely.
In return, Winter and Hope have provided us with two stories of improvement and friendship. Their perseverance and adaptability have made them both succeed and serve as an example to help many people not to give up on problems.
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