SeaWorld’s Dolphin Nursery has fresh look

An old attraction has a new look at SeaWorld Orlando. The theme park’s Dolphin Nursery has reopened with clearer views of the nine animals living there.

The front wall of the pool is now mostly clear, allowing visitors to see the dolphins swimming underwater. Cut-outs in the rockwork on one side, similar to a ship’s porthole, make for smaller viewing areas that kids and adults can climb into.

The changes “give the guests an opportunity to experience them in a way that’s a little more upclose and personal than ever before,” said Daniel Richardville, a supervisor in SeaWorld’s zoological department.

The nursery has a new scaffolding-style structure above it with larger signage near the top. There is also a new video screen that displays educational matter. It can also be used to electronically show off the chalk art created by children on one side of the nursery. In the water, a medical scale has been installed to ease the task of weighing the animals.

Although the attraction has not moved from its spot near SeaWorld’s entrance, the more open design might draw more people.

“Now it grabs your eye when you walk by it,” Richardville said. It’s also easier to see if there’s a training session going on or if the dolphins are playing, he said.

“It tends to bring people in and then open them up to questions about the animals,” he said. “It gives us an amazing opportunity to educate them about the animals in this facility.”

SeaWorld has other below-the-surface viewing areas, including some that spotlight its killer whales, sharks, penguins, manatees, turtles and dolphins. The park has been shifting its emphasis from shows that entertain to productions that also inform and encourage conservation and SeaWorld’s rescue mission.

Inside the 185,000-gallon pool at Dolphin Nursery, it’s a family affair. Delilah, born last year, is there with her mother, 9-year-old Damara. And Damara’s mom — 20-year-old Dash — also lives there. Another calf born last year lives there with her mother, too. There are an additional two dolphins, mothers themselves, in the nursery, serving as “aunties,” Richardville said. Rounding out the group are two juvenile males who are about 3 years old.

There are groupings of dolphins in other parts of SeaWorld Orlando, including for the new “Dolphin Days” show and in the Key West area.

SeaWorld workers perform six to 10 training sessions per day at the Dolphin Nursery. But there’s also lots of free time for the animals.

“They all have their own personalities. They have their things that they enjoy doing, things that they’re good at,” Richardville said.

The dolphins race beneath the surface but also perform some low jumps out of the water, a maneuver called porpoising. The animals also bob up and down vertically, play with buoys and other toys, swim up onto new pool slide-outs and playfully splash onlookers.

“You really can see all different sides and all different aspects of their personalities,” Richardville said.

JACOB LANGSTON/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER SeaWorld Orlando trainer Whitney Gilbert works with the dolphins at the newly revamped Dolphin Nursery at the park.