Call to action!!! The dolphins at Hawks Cay need your help saving their home.

Dolphin Connection has been a fixture of Duck Key since the 80’s and is up for sale by the Riveron Company. For 40 years Dolphin Connection has educated guests and promoted conservation for visitors and residents within the keys community. The future for the animals that call Dolphin Connection home is now very uncertain. Since being up for sale there have been several offers to buy the company and continue caring for the animals. One offer was from a company that wanted to turn it into a not for profit dolphin sanctuary! However, Hawks Cay (owned by Brookfield Asset Management) has decided that the animals are no longer welcomed there. 

There are 8 dolphins that call Dolphin Connection home. Chinook is in his forties and considered geriatric. He is a former dolphin with the US Navy. He has resided at Dolphin Connection for many years and this was his “keys retirement”. Balla is 22 years old and was born and raised at the facility. This is literally the only home he’s ever known. There are two rescue dolphins (Cajun and Roux) that reside there. Both were stranded as juveniles and deemed non-releasable. They now live in an open water system habitat with tides and many wild fish. Maia, Indie, Luna are three sisters and Striker (all originally born at Gulf World) that also live there. This is their home. If Hawks Cay does not change their outlook, all 8 will be uprooted from their home and transferred to another facility. 

There are many resorts throughout the Florida Keys but Hawks Cay is the only one that has dolphins on property. They offer a beautiful natural habitat for the dolphins. The resort guests can watch the dolphins any time of day and are provided abundant educational opportunities from the animal care staff including educational presentations.  

The dolphins  residing at Hawks Cay are accustomed to having their every need taken care of and cannot survive out in the open ocean. Transporting dolphins can be stressful on them (especially a geriatric animal like Chinook). If transferred it would break up their social bonds and disrupt their whole lives. 

Activists clamor for a sanctuary, yet when an opportunity arises to build one, they are silent and Corporations view dolphins as nothing more than sunk cost liabilities.

It was aquariums that inspired the “Save the Whale Movement” which led to the marine mammal protection act of 1972. The loss of this facility means that Hawks Cay will be just another resort in the keys. The loss of this facility means that the opportunity to inspire the next generation is lost. With your help, we can change the minds of Brookfield Asset Management to allow those 8 dolphins to keep their home in the Florida Keys but time is running out! The opposition period to make your voices heard ends on Jan. 2nd and they want the removal of all dolphins by the end of January. 

Please help the dolphins keep their home!