Mystic Aquarium earns reputation for whale, dolphin rehab

A rescued dolphin swims around in one of the two 100,000 gallon rehabilitation tanks at Mystic Marine Life Aquarium in Connecticut

Because Mystic had the space, the aquarium offered Stormy a home.

"He tells a story to our visitors about what goes on out there," St. Aubin said. "Life at sea is not all rosy."

The aquarium, with about six of its 120 full-time workers dedicated to research and veterinary care, operates on a $13 million annual budget. The nonprofit receives no federal money for taking in a stranded animal and relies on private donations for rehabilitation and research projects.

Caring for the pilot whales during their four-month stay cost about $90,000, St. Aubin said.

Why dedicate the aquarium to a mission with such a hefty price tag? The work helps both researchers at other aquariums and in the wild better understand and care for the animals, said Jane Ballentine, a spokeswoman for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, an industry group based in Silver Spring, Md.

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"Learning about the undersea world has always been something people struggled with," she said. "You can learn a lot about animals in an aquarium that you can't learn in the wild. And everybody has the same goal: getting the public informed, interested and hoping they'll go out and do some conservation on their own."

David St. Aubin, director of research and veterinary services at Mystic Marine Life Aquarium

Mystic's pilot whales taught researchers that the animals can dive for up to 25 minutes at a time, to depths of about 1,000 feet (300 meters) and travel significant distances within their range -- all new discoveries, St. Aubin said.

The work with the common dolphin may provide clues to the increased number of recent strandings, and ways to prevent them in the future.

And projects by aquarium staff aside from their stranding efforts have laid the groundwork for a DNA-based vaccine for penguins and helped scientists better understand the massive die-off of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in 1987.

"It's a measure of our ecosystem's health," St. Aubin said. "Marine mammals are at the top of the food chain and they're high profile, so they're good indicators."

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Mystic Aquarium
American Zoo and Aquarium Association

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