Hemingway' settles in at Marineland

BY JULIE MURPHY, STAFF WRITER
December 14, 2011 12:05 AM Posted in: East Volusia Tagged: Marineland
Dazzle, right, and her newest calf born Sept. 5 at Marineland Dolphin Adventure. (Photo | Marineland)
MARINELAND -- Hemingway is at Marineland for the first time in several decades and this time he might stay.

He won't be writing any novels but he promises to be a star nonetheless as he's the newest calf of Dazzle, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin also born at the Marineland attraction.

While this Hemingway was born Sept. 5, zoologists were unsure of his gender. Once they determined he was a boy, staff members set about the task of naming him, said Francesca Allegra Zeifman, spokeswoman of Georgia Aquarium, Marineland's parent company. His name was chosen from a list of submissions.

Ernest Hemingway was known to visit Marineland and the Dolphin Restaurant.

According to the book "Marineland, Images of America," Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer-prize winning author of "The Yearling," saw Hemingway across the restaurant one day in 1940 and sent over a note that read: "If you're Ernest Hemingway, won't you join us for a drink?"

He replied, "If you're Marjorie Rawlings, I'd be glad to."

Future Hemingway sightings at Marineland won't be nearly so rare.

"Ninety-five percent of the time, the public has been able to see Hemingway," said Kevin Roberts, curator of marine animals. "The rare times when he's not in one of the main viewing tanks, one of our educators will take you on a guided tour to see him."

Hemingway is still nursing, which Roberts said is something special to watch.

"They don't start to eat for four or six months," Roberts said. "They are very well-adapted to nurse without taking in a bunch of sea water."

Also unique is the opportunity to see the calf along his mother, grandmother, siblings and half siblings.

"Nellie tends to get all the headlines as the oldest dolphin, but we have four at Marineland that are in their 40s," Roberts said. "We're pretty proud of that, too.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/12/14/hemingway-settles-in-at-marineland.html