Meet the marine life of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) helps rehabilitate marine life that cannot live on their own while also educating the community on how to help them.

For example, take 13-year-old Apollo, a dolphin now living at IMMS. At just a year old, Apollo was found sunburned on a beach in Louisiana.

Once in rehabilitation, IMMS Animal Care Supervisor Ellie Johnson says rescuers made an interesting discovery.

Johnson says, “It was discovered that he actually has hearing loss, so he does not have the full range of hearing that dolphins would have in the wild to be able to thrive and survive to do daily life.”

IMMS also features a bird exhibit full of more than 200 parakeets.

IMMS Senior Parakeet Keeper Christina Price says, “I have a name for a couple of them just because of their different personalities and patterns. Like this one right here is Banana, and then the one that you just had was Storm because of his white cloud on his chest, and then this one right here is Cutie Pie.”

Along with Banana, Storm, and Cutie Pie, most of the birds are native to Australia.

IMMS Ocean Adventures also allows guests to snorkel with stingrays and sharks.

IMMS Aquarist Jocelyn Hays says, “We have a lot of different cow-nosed stingrays, which are native to our gulf here. They range in age from just a few weeks old all the way up to 12 years old. Our sharks are our white-spotted bamboo sharks.”

Hays says that several of these stingrays were caught in shrimp nets. Local fishermen brought the stingrays to IMMS to treat their injuries, and now they get safe interactions with people like us.

While coming to IMMS with friends and family is a fun way to engage with marine life and other animals, Johnson says that they hope guests will leave wanting to help these animals.

Johnson says, “We’re giving guests the opportunity to meet these animals, hopefully gain a new appreciation for these animals, and hopefully want to do better for the environment because they’ve met these animals and inspire them to want to learn more.”

If you encounter a stranded marine mammal, call 1-888-SOS-DOLPHIN.

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