Bayley the dolphin turns 1!

The National Aquarium is celebrating a birthday! Bayley, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin born at the Aquarium on July 27, 2008, is one year old today. The public is invited to share in her birthday celebration during the Aquarium’s first ever public enrichment building day on Saturday, August 8. Click here for details!

Bayley is one of 10 dolphins living at the National Aquarium. At one year old, she is still nursing from her mother but also eating about six pounds of fish a day. She spends most of her time with her mother, Chesapeake, and other adult female dolphins, but also plays with 2 year old Foster who shares the pools with her. She is very active and eager to learn and play, and is already participating in shows!

In lieu of presents, you can TXT the word ACT to 20222 to give Bayley a gift! Your $5 donation will support the care and feeding of Bayley and her 16,000 aquatic friends at the Aquarium.

Environmental enrichment is an important part of the care animals recieve at the National Aquarium. While these items may be seen as just toys, the animal care staff is actually encouraging natural behaviors and giving the animals something new to investigate in their environment. Animals engage in lots of behaviors and enrichment gives them the opportunity to forage, hide, explore and play.  Play helps many animals, including dolphins, develop behavioral skills they need throughout life. 

By providing simple, everyday items, such as paper towel rolls for birds or basketballs for dolphins, the animals can practice a wide range of behaviors. Interested in making enrichment items for your animals at home? Click here to learn more.

Counting dolphins

The National Aquarium’s Marine Animal Rescue Program is hosting Maryland’s annual dolphin count tomorrow, Friday the 17th, along the coast of Ocean City! Staff and volunteers will spend a few hours on the beach watching the water for passing dolphins and filling out data sheets.  The teams will be stationed on the beaches at 40th street and 130th street and at Assateague State Park. There will also be a vessel based team aboard an Ocean City Coast Guard boat.

Think you know how many dolphins we will spot tomorrow? Text “dolphin” and your guess to 30644 and you could win a pair of tickets to the Aquarium! The contest will end at 1 p.m. ET on Friday. The official count and winners will be announced here so please check back Friday afternoon. Good luck!

Why are we counting dolphins? Annual dolphin counts help marine mammal specialists gather long-term information about dolphin populations, reproduction rates and ocean health. We have learned that bottlenose dolphins use Maryland waters as a thoroughfare for migration, summertime breeding, and feeding along the way.  Looking at population numbers over the years can help to determine the health of the coastal ecosystem as well as the abundance of prey.  With your help we will continue to gather and analyze this information and learn more about the state of our waters and the dolphin populations that are found off our coast.

Pledging to protect Our Ocean Planet

Our Ocean Planet, the new dolphin show at the National Aquarium, comes with an important message: our behaviors affect dolphins and other ocean animals in many ways, both good and bad.  We all have a duty to make sure we are protecting – not hurting – the dolphin’s beautiful ocean world!

Visitors have been learning more about this world and different ways to help save it.  Since dolphins cannot clean up the trash and debris that drift into the oceans, the show encourages humans to get involved in solving this global problem. Take a look at the pledges we have recieved from children to help the dolphins in various ways – all of which you can do at home, too! 

“I recycle.  I clean my house.” — Ravi

“I will move the slime out of the way.” — Jenna Mackenzie

“I will clean water for many fish.” — Eoen

Get a closer look at Spirit

Spirit is another one of the younger dolphins born at the National Aquarium. She is very playful and loves learning new behaviors for the shows.  In fact, she is usually the first dolphin to try out a new toy.

She is the daughter of Nani, the oldest dolphin living here at the Aquarium, and was born on April 13, 2001. She will turn 8 years old in just a few days!  Spirit was named in honor of September 11th. She is living up to that honor, as she is always showing off her spirit during shows! Take a look:

Learn more about all of our dolphins by visiting the brand new dolphin show website at  www.aqua.org/dolphins!

Explore Maya’s World

A few weeks ago we took you into the world of Nani, our oldest dolphin. This week we’d like to take you into the world of one of our younger dolphins, Maya!

Maya is known as the “princess” of the pool. She is a girly-girl and loves shiny objects. She is just 8 years old, but one of the stars of the new dolphin show, Our Ocean Planet. She has incredible athletic ability, which she loves to show off during shows. You may catch a glimpse of her abilities on TV in one of the Aquarium’s new commericials:

Maya was born at the National Aquarium in 2001 and is the daughter of Shiloh, who also lives at the Aquarium. Weighing 380 pounds, she eats about 21 pounds of fish a day! When she is not performing, Maya is typically playing with Spirit, another 8 year old dolphin, and looking for attention from the trainers.

You can catch Maya in action during Our Ocean Planet, shows now running daily at the Aquarium. Join us for the grand opening April 4 & 5 and enjoy special dolphin activities and giveaways!