Writing your Own Summary

“Winter” article
This week, the film "Dolphin's Tale" (from Warner Bros. Pictures and Alcon Entertainment) opens in theaters. It is the true story of Winter, a dolphin who was rescued from a crab trap and, with the help of a dedicated team, was able to overcome her devastating injuries. Winter plays herself in the film. The following is an article about Winter that appeared in Current Science in its March 7, 2008 edition.
In December 2005, a Florida fisherman discovered a 3-month-old female bottlenose dolphin tangled in the ropes of a crab net near Cape Canaveral. Fighting to free herself, the little dolphin had sustained serious injuries, including deep cuts to her mouth and tongue. Worst of all, the net had cut off the blood supply to her two flukes (tail fins).
A team of local scientists rescued her from the net but could not save the flukes or the peduncle, the joint that connects the tail to the rest of the body. The flukes and peduncle are what enable a dolphin to propel itself with powerful up-and-down strokes as fast as 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour.
Without a tail, the baby dolphin would be limited in her ability to get around and vulnerable to sharks. Could anything be done to help her? Therein lies a tail.

Winter swims in a tank at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Fla.,
in August 2011. A prosthetic tail helped the dolphin get back in the swim after
being caught in a crab trap. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
The Rescuers
The scientists took the dolphin to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, a small facility on Florida's west coast that attracts about 150,000 visitors a year. Although the aquarium houses stingrays and other sea animals in its tanks, its primary role is the rescue and rehabilitation of dolphins, sea turtles, and river otters.
At the aquarium, a team of more than 150 vets and volunteers nursed the dolphin, now named Winter, back to health. Soon, she was wiggling her way around the pool with the help of her flippers, which a dolphin normally uses for steering and braking. The determined little creature was able to propel herself in a side-to-side motion not unlike that of a shark or an alligator, achieving about one-third the usual speed for a dolphin.
Still, aquarium scientists worried that prolonged swimming in that improvised style would eventually injure Winter's spine. Because she was bending her body in a way that is unnatural for a dolphin, she received regular thermograms. A thermogram is a body scan that is sensitive to thermal radiation—radiation emitted by a warm body—and can detect abnormalities in the bones, nerves, muscles, and blood vessels. The thermograms revealed that Winter was showing early signs of scoliosis, or sideways curvature of the spine.

Winter's trainer, Abby Stone (left) introduces the dolphin to aquarium visitors in August 2011. You can meet Winter on the
big screen when her movie, "Dolphin Tale," opens in theaters on September 23. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Fake Fins
Could Winter be made whole again? The Clearwater vets knew that Japanese scientists had fitted Fuji, an elderly dolphin, with a prosthetic (artificial) tail a few years earlier. However, Fuji's natural tail was partly intact, so the prosthesis was easily attached. Winter's entire tail was missing.
Eventually, Hanger Orthopedic Group of Bethesda, Md., came forward with a proposal for a prosthetic tail suitable for Winter. The fake tail would fit over Winter's stump like a rubber surgical glove and remain in place through suction. Made from a soothing silicone gel, it would not irritate a dolphin's sensitive skin. As with a prosthetic limb for a human, it could be easily removed.
Kevin Carroll, a vice president at Hanger Orthopedic, says fitting Winter with the prosthesis took months of experimentation. A dolphin's tail is one of nature's most powerful swimming mechanisms and the animal puts enormous pressure on it. Winter's handlers also spent many hours moving her hind end up and down to show her how to move like a normal dolphin. Eventually, Winter learned to swim more naturally and quickly.
"This is very exciting because this is a brand-new technology," David Yates, chief executive officer of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, told Current Science. "And this fin doesn't just help her swim; it's therapeutic as well." Winter's scoliosis disappeared.
Winter began by wearing the prosthetic tail only a few minutes a day, then up to half an hour, and worked to wearing it for up to six hours. She can also remove the tail herself by tightening her muscles. Carroll and his associates discovered that feat one day when an iron grate was dropped accidentally into Winter's pool. The resulting noise was so loud that it frightened Winter, prompting her to release the prosthesis suddenly.
Carroll checks the tail every three months because Winter is growing bigger, and her body is changing all the time. "Outfitting her with a tail that fits her properly will go on forever," he says.

Winter's trainer, Abby Stone, fits Winter with her prosthetic tail
in August 2011. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
'Dolphin Diva'
Dolphins are social beings—they thrive in the company of other members of their species—so Winter shares her pool with Panama, a 30-year-old female bottlenose. Winter's caretakers describe Winter as remarkably upbeat and persistent—a "dolphin diva," says Yates.
Winter's tail cost hundreds of thousand of dollars to research and develop, an expense that its creators have taken on. "This research will also help people with prosthetic limbs," says Carroll. Indeed, Carroll used the same type of silicone gel in Winter's tail to create a comfortable prosthesis for a U.S. serviceman who lost both legs and a hand in a mortar attack in Iraq.
"Everyone, including other prosthetic companies, thought we were crazy," says Carroll. "But we have been able to successfully make a prosthetic tail for this injured dolphin which works!"
"This is a good lesson," he adds. "Never give up!”
©2008, 2011 Weekly Reader Corporation. A version of this article originally appeared in Current Science, March 7, 2008. Published online September 20, 2011.
Use the 4 rules for summarizing for editing your paragraph.
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SUMMARY