When we were younger, we learned that snipping the plastic six-pack rings that held our sodas together would prevent curious sea creatures from getting their appendages stuck in them—and thereby save them from dangerous entanglement. But these days, more than just plastic rings threaten our marine mammals, and the harm done goes well beyond a stuck snout. Case in point: Winter, a one-year-old bottlenose dolphin, who was found with the blood flow to her tail cut off by the buoy line of a crab trap. Although doctors at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution tried to salvage the tail, it couldn't be saved—leaving Winter with only a stump.
But even though she's tail-less, Winter is in high spirits, according to Dana Zucker, CEO of Florida's Clearwater Marine Aquarium. "She's bubbly, energetic and determined," Zucker says. "She loves having her belly rubbed." Winter even manages to swim by using her flippers to get moving and making shark-like side-to-side movements. Still, she can't move as quickly as other dolphins, and her trainers worry that swimming this way might be detrimental to her spine.
While things might seem grim for Winter, technology has provided a solution for animals in just such situations: prosthetic limbs. No longer restricted to human recipients, prosthetics have proven a successful tool for animal rehabilitation. Fuji, an elderly dolphin in Japan who lost 75% of his tail fin due to a mysterious disease, received a rubber tail from Bridgestone Tire Company and has been swimming happily ever since. And birds that have lost their beaks get prosthetic replacements at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida.
Winter's handlers are exploring prosthetics options, but her case does pose some unique problems. For one, there's the cost: Fuji's prosthetic, which was only a partial fin, cost $100,000 in 2004. Winter will need between three and five prosthetic tails as she grows. And because dolphins put an enormous amount of force on their tails, the prosthetic will have to be tough. But perhaps the biggest challenge is that Winter lost her not only her flukes, but also the peduncle joint that controls the up-and-down motion of the tail—so there's nothing to attach a prosthetic to.
Still, there's reason to hope. A diving supply company, a tire company and the Navy have all expressed interest in Winter's case. And who knows, maybe Hugh Herr at the MIT Media Lab—who won a PM Breakthrough Award last year for his pioneering work in prosthetics (more at Hugh Herr's website)—will get in on the action. —Erin McCarthy