If you love animals & inspiring stories, Clearwater Marine Aquarium is for you.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium, also known as CMA, is pretty much for us all! Families, kids of all ages, and those with a heart for animals will fall in love with the animals of Clearwater Marine Aquarium!
We recently had the pleasure of visiting CMA as representatives of The Mommy Spot Tampa Bay, and met a few of the volunteers and some of the special animals living at CMA, and we left truly inspired.
Did you know that CMA is actually supported primarily through donations and volunteers? 700 volunteers to be exact! That’s a lot of people with love for animals that help CMA to do what it does each day. From feeding the animals, keeping their pools clean to managing the intake of new rescues coming in daily, the work that goes into CMA is huge a labor of love.
I think it's safe to say, my boys want to become official, marine-animal-caregivers for CMA in the future after our visit last week! In addition to being an aquarium, CMA is a full working animal hospital, treating animals found right here in our Bay Area and sometimes around the state! We were fortunate enough to get a special behind-the-scenes look at how the animals are cared for and fed everyday! The boys even had the chance to hold samples of the restaurant quality fish prepared daily for the animals at CMA! We also learned about many inspiring stories of other animals that are rescued, rehabilitated and if possible, released back into the wild.
Most of us are all familiar with the most famous rescued animals of CMA, Winter & Hope, the dolphin stars of the films, A Dolphin Tale & the sequel A Dolphin Tale 2. We loved learning more about their rescue and how they live now, as permanent residences of the aquarium.
One of the most amazing parts of our visit, was having the unique opportunity to meet Hope! Our group had the chance to say hello and feed her a fish snack! The sneaky girl gave us a good splash, but we think it was her way of giving us a hug! It was such a special treat to have this experience!
Meeting, feeding and interacting with Hope was an incredible experience!
If you haven’t been to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, or its been a while, this month is the perfect time to plan a visit! Beginning February 8th, kids can show some love to Winter, Hope or any of the animals at CMA by bringing in a valentine for the animals and receive special admission pricing!
Visit CMA February 8-14 and kids 12 and under will receive $9.99 admission* when you bring a Valentine’s Day card for Winter or any of our resident, rescued animals.
- Special Valentine’s dive presentations at 11 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
- Giant Valentine’s Day card you can sign!
- Photo opportunity with “Be Winter’s Valentine” photo frame and mascot
- Valentine’s themed glitter tattoos
- Fintastic Valentine’s Day card photo packages will also be available
- Offer valid between Feb. 8-14 for kids 12 and under at Ticketing only.
I hope you'll plan a visit to CMA very soon. We can't wait to go back! There were so many wonderful additions to the aquarium since our last visit! A special interactive Q&A with an underwater diver, a touch tank with stingrays, even a chance to make 'Winter's Gel' with a top secret formula and a mad scientist! :) Another treat, was having a chance to play with Winter through the window of her pool with ice cubes! Thanks to another CMA volunteer, we learned she & Hope love ice!
A huge thanks to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium for having us for this incredible visit and experience! For more about this special promotion later this month, be sure to visit, www.seewinter.com/events
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