For a facility more accustomed to sharks, rays and manatees, the newest guests at Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters come with a little more personality — and a lot more fur.
Three harbor seals from Dolphin Research Center are on a temporary vacation down the road while DRC completes an upgrade to the life support systems serving their habitat.
The arrangement keeps the senior seals – 21-year-old Ace, 16-year-old Cane and 34-year-old Baby – close to their Marathon home while giving DRC time to complete the work. And it’s brought two Middle Keys marine life facilities together for a common cause.
The seals are relatively new to the Keys, adopted earlier this year by DRC when their former home at the Miami Seaquarium closed during international bankruptcy proceedings.
“All of the animals who lived at Miami Seaquarium, including the marine mammals, needed homes, and various facilities rose to that challenge,” including three in Monroe County, said DRC CEO Rita Irwin.
DRC was among them, taking in two dolphins and two sea lions along with the harbor seals – a species new to the facility.
“While we anticipated their needs, and are giving them great care, we felt we could up our game,” Irwin said. That meant upgrades to the closed-circuit filtration systems at a facility which normally relies on tidal exchanges in open lagoons – changes that couldn’t be made while the seals stayed at home.
As the Grassy Key facility was considering a temporary move to other facilities in central Florida or the west coast, Aquarium Encounters stepped in, sparing the seals from a second lengthy transport in less than a year.
“They opened their hearts and their home,” Irwin said, adding that owner Ben Daughtry “said yes without even flinching.”
Aquarium Encounters already had an available 12,000-gallon pool normally reserved for manatees in the final stages of rehabilitation before release. But when the aquarium explained the situation to the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP), program leaders said “absolutely,” according to Aquarium Encounters biologist Kee Bligh.
The three seals will now enjoy a state-of-the-art life support system designed to keep even the most sensitive fish, sharks and rays healthy under the watch of Aquarium Encounters’ Andy Dobrowolski. Irwin said DRC has leaned on his expertise in redesigning their own systems.
“It’s a massive credit to their facility, and the staff have been incredibly helpful to our transition over here too,” said trainer Wade Davey. One DRC staff member remains at Aquarium Encounters throughout the day, with additional trainers rotating in for sessions, and medical staff visiting as needed.
“We’ve never had to worry about fur in our filtration here,” laughed Bligh, who spent time as a seal rehabber two decades ago with Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. “So that’s a new challenge. But it’s neat to see how our systems handle it. We’ve had so many species from scalloped hammerheads to manatees and now seals.
“Their personalities are amazing,” she added. “We’re doing our walkthroughs, and all of a sudden,you’re hearing these guys just playing around with each other. It’s just not something we’re used to … I’m used to silent sharks.”
Along with the husbandry care, adapting to the new species requires special attention to their training, personalities, mobility and other concerns, Davey said – and thankfully, there’s a helping hand for those as well.
Former Miami Seaquarium and Gulf World trainer Alix Philos, who described herself as “Baby’s mom,” now works for a new reservation-based facility called Florida Sea Lion Encounters, but has an open door to visit the Keys and spend time with the animals she’s known for years. And before the seals made the journey south to the Keys, DRC trainers visited the Seaquarium to witness their training and trainer relationships firsthand.
“Heartwarming doesn’t even describe it,” Philos said of being able to maintain those bonds after difficult closures of the animals’ former homes throughout the state. “I can come and stay for a weekend, and act like I work at this place with them.”
“We can help that transition by building that same trust and bond using the same techniques (as their former trainers),” Davey added. “That’s why we want to have open ears, to take the feedback they give us and expand that in our own facility.”
“(The animals) do know their people, and they do remember them, and we honor that,” Irwin told the Weekly.
Bligh said that while the two Marathon facilities have teamed up during manatee rescues over the last few years, the seals have created an opportunity for a deeper partnership.
“We’re all bringing that compassion that we have for the marine life and the environment that we’re around,” she said.
Philos agreed.
“It’s just nice to see everyone come together to care for them, even people who don’t know them,” she said. “The idea is, ‘whatever the animals need,’ and that’s the best part of it all.”
Photos by ALEX RICKERT/Keys Weekly
