Clearwater Marine Aquarium Breaks Attendance Records

It seems the home of Winter the Dolphin is becoming quite popular with visitors.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium is reporting that it broke several attendance records at the tail end of last year. The marine rescue center, in fact, logged its highest-ever daily attendance of 6,654 visitors on Dec. 30. The day before that, 6,046 guests paid the aquarium a visit.

The period of Dec. 29-30 saw a 92 percent increase in visitors over the same dates in 2013, the aquarium noted in a media release.

“Visitors to Clearwater Marine Aquarium present an economic impact to the area that is estimated at a half-billion dollars in 2013 and could triple by 2016, according to a study by USF St. Petersburg’s College of Business,” the release stated. “ Out-of-state and international visitors continue to increase, with many travelling to Clearwater to see the rescued animals of Winter, Hope and others that are featured in the Dolphin Tale movies.”

The aquarium reports aside from record-setting attendance, 2014 was an overall successful year. The aquarium’s teams responded to more than 100 animal in distress calls, including those to help dolphins, river otters, manatees, sea birds, whales and more. The medical care team was responsible for a number of releases and ongoing rehabilitation and was able to monitor and protect 187 loggerhead turtle nests that produced more than 14,000 seat turtle hatchlings last year.

To find out more about the aquarium, visit it online.