Joe Handy, CEO, Clearwater Marine Aquarium

August 2026 —In an interview with Invest:, Joe Handy, CEO of Clearwater Marine Aquarium, discussed the aquarium’s expanding animal care, tourism role, and international conservation work. “We have to balance being timeless and timely,” Handy said.

What key changes over the past year have most impacted Clearwater Marine Aquarium?

There has been so much going on at Clearwater Marine Aquarium over the past year. At the beginning of the year, our focus was getting back to business as usual and recovering from the hurricane. What we saw was a community coming together and supporting our efforts because of the work that we do.

This past year has been monumental for us. We welcomed new patients, reopened our manatee habitat, and released some manatees back into the wild. We are what we consider a Stage 2 facility for manatees, meaning we receive manatees when they are at the point where they can be released into the wild. We take great pride in rehabilitating manatees and continuing our mission of rescue, rehabilitation, and release.

We have also seen an increase in our patients. We have almost doubled the number of residents, or animals, that we care for. We are now up to 10 dolphins. We are the only facility in North America that houses both rough-toothed dolphins and bottlenose dolphins, which is exciting because understanding these animals allows us to contribute to broader knowledge

about how they live, what health issues they may face, and how people care for dolphins in other facilities or in the wild.

How are these changes impacting visitor engagement?

Our purpose is to be the voice of the animals in our care. In addition to dolphins, we have introduced harbor seals, and we 

opened a larger pinniped habitat to  include bringing in sea lions.

A lot of times, these animals in the wild are voiceless, unseen, or unheard. Welcoming them into  our care gives us the opportunity to tell their stories and be their voice. We can talk about the impact humans have on their natural habitats and why these animals are in our care in the first place.

Having them here allows us to help guests leave the aquarium with a better understanding of how they can have a more positive impact on our world’s oceans.

How does Clearwater Marine Aquarium contribute to the local economy through tourism, education, and environmental stewardship?

We look at ourselves as part of a bigger ecosystem related to tourism in and around this area. The beach carries a lot of weight, and people want to come to the beach, but an additional feather in Clearwater’s cap is having this research facility and marine animal hospital that people can visit to learn more about the habitats they are experiencing.

When people go to the beach and see turtles, dolphins, pelicans, and other wildlife, they can come visit us and learn more about those animals. This area is driven heavily by tourists, and we want to be part of that story. When people schedule their vacation and look at things to do in the area, we are proud to be one of the places they visit.

When a dollar is generated outside of this area and spent here, it has an echoing impact. It allows us to put infrastructure in place to support additional tourism. It also gives people a chance to see how beautiful this area is and imagine themselves living here.

From a tourism standpoint, from an education standpoint, and from the perspective of helping guests understand how to protect marine life and marine ecosystems, we want people to see Clearwater as a place where they can retire, live, or raise a family.

How are you approaching talent attraction and workforce development in specialized areas such as marine rescue and veterinary care?

We would not have the impact we have without the passionate people who bring their time and talent to this organization every day. This facility has so many passionate people who care for the animals in our care.

There is the passion of the people interacting directly with the animals, but there is also the passion of those articulating the message on the dry side. We have the wet side and the dry side. The dry side is about speaking with our guests, narrating what they are seeing, and educating them about each animal in our care.

This past year, we also launched a mobile classroom. It allows us to go out into the community, tell these stories, and meet people where they are. That is driven by our staff. How we tell the world about the work we do is based on our staff.

We are also conducting research domestically and abroad. We have a rehabilitation center that we are opening this year in Belize. We publish a lot of work, and we take pride in being an international organization. We do work in the United States, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Belize. That research allows us to educate others about the animals in our care and animals in the wild, so they can better care for them and better understand them.

What key trends are shaping marine conservation and aquarium spaces today?

Clearwater Marine Aquarium sits in a unique space because how we define trends may not be how people traditionally define them. Trends are typically what is happening now, but we are grounded in our mission, and we have been this way for 54 years.

Our mission, unapologetically, is to focus on the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine animals, and to provide a forever home for animals that are deemed non-releasable. That is foundational. We have to balance being timeless and timely.

Being timeless means we are unwavering. That is who we are, who we are always going to be, and part of our DNA. Being timely means recognizing how we convey that message to our audience, guests, peers, and corporate partners.

Our emerging audience is fine-tuned to authenticity. Visitors want genuine experiences, and they want to know that their dollars supporting Clearwater Marine Aquarium are going to a place that is respectful of the animals in our care and the research we do.

We are transparent. On our website, we talk about the good things we are doing and the challenges we are having. Most of the animals in our care have some level of compromised health. Things are not always blue skies and roses. The reality is that what we do as humans, and how we impact the ocean and ocean ecosystems, has long-term effects. We have to tell those stories in a way that helps people understand their own impact on our world’s oceans.

What are the main challenges facing your organization, and how are you turning those challenges into opportunities for growth and deeper impact?

We have to embrace technology as a way to positively impact the work that we do. The challenges we face are not independent from the challenges many businesses face. The economy is a challenge, and there is increased public pressure, particularly on aquariums and institutions like ours.

That pressure has caused some facilities to close, and we have stepped into that gap by providing homes for some of the animals affected by those closures. We feel good about that because we have become a trusted source and a trusted space.

There is a lot of public pressure tied to the authenticity of the work organizations do, as well as financial challenges. We have to be good stewards of every dollar that comes into our facility.

From an economic standpoint, tourism and international tourism are challenges because of their impact on this region. We also have to ask how each dollar we receive is being spent so we can build a sustainable future for the organization, continue to be a place of refuge, and provide forever homes for animals that need them.

What are your key goals and priorities for the next three to five years?

The way I look at the next three to five years is positioning ourselves to tell more stories, create greater impact, and have more people visit our facility so they can become advocates for our work.

We want to make good on telling the stories of pinnipeds on the West Coast. Being in Florida, having sea lions and harbor seals up close and the chance to learn about them is not something many local people have experienced. The opening of our Pinniped Pier this past summer ,, is exciting because we can tell the story of another species people are not super familiar with.

We will continue looking at ways to rescue, rehabilitate, and release animals, particularly in the manatee space. We would love to expand our building so we can tell more stories and accept additional animals.

Over the next three years, we are looking at introducing penguins to this facility, again because it is not necessarily an animal people are super familiar with. We also want to deepen our research across the globe and educate the next generation of marine biologists. We are planning to open our manatee rehabilitation facility in Belize by the end of 2026.

What makes the visitor experience at Clearwater Marine Aquarium unique?

Clearwater Marine Aquarium is extremely unique because you can visit any aquarium in the world and not see it the same way you see Clearwater Marine Aquarium. At another aquarium, you often have to go behind the scenes to immerse yourself in the experience or get beyond the glass.

For us, our behind-the-scenes experience is the front of the house. When you walk through our facility, what you see would equate to everyone else’s behind the scenes. It is a very immersive experience, both good and bad. When you walk through the facility and smell the birds, that is authentic.

That is one of the things we pride ourselves on because we give guests a real experience. It is not propaganda. It is a real story that helps people care for the animals the way we care for the animals.