CLEARWATER — The Clearwater Marine Aquarium was riding expansion plans coming into the new decade, buoyed by rising attendance and revenue.
And then came the death of its star attraction — a world-famous dolphin named Winter with a prosthetic tail and movie credits. A string of other dolphin deaths, a voyeurism scandal and 2024’s hurricanes further hurt the aquarium’s reputation and ticket sales.
Four years after her death, the aquarium is still figuring out how to reinvent itself and survive after the loss of Winter. Its search comes as the city of Clearwater grapples with how to draw visitors to its quiet downtown, where entities connected to the Church of Scientology have snapped up prime real estate and left it fallow…