Hunter Kinney, head coach and chief innovation officer for Dolphin Life Inc., bonds along with his first dolphin love, Alfonz, at Dolphin Life Key Largo. Credit score: Dolphin Life Inc.
Hunter Kinney, head coach and chief innovation officer for Dolphin Life Inc. within the Higher Keys, is a Kentucky boy who loves all animals.
Rising up on a 3-acre farm in Somerset, Kentucky, Kinney was surrounded by a menagerie of landlocked livestock: horses, goats, canine and cats, and free-flying wild birds resembling hawks, vultures and eagles.
Kinney noticed his first dolphins across the age of 6 whereas on a Central Florida household trip at Seaworld Orlando.
Hunter Kinney (r) and husband Luke (l) in Kentucky with their three pet pugs: Buoy, Harbor and Whaler. Credit score: Hunter Kinney, Dolphin Life Inc.
“I used to be simply mesmerized. Seeing the trainers and dolphins work together collectively is what made me fall in love with dolphins,” Kinney remembers. “I needed to chase my dolphin dream.”
Kinney graduated from Japanese Kentucky College with a level in animal research and got here to the Keys 10 years in the past as an intern with Dolphins Plus Oceanside in Key Largo.
Dolphins Plus Marine Mammal Responder (DPMMR) was based by Artwork and Nancy Cooper, who initially rebranded Dolphins Plus Oceanside to DPMMR; and once more in 2025 to Dolphin Life Inc.
Artwork is head life guard (or founder and director of strandings) and Nancy is president. For almost 40 years, DPMMR’s crew, led by the Coopers, has responded to beached, sick and injured dolphins and whales within the Keys.
The Dolphin Life facility in Key Largo allows guests to swim with wholesome dolphins.
And with the rebranded Dolphin Life Hospital (previously The Shield Heart) in Islamorada, long-term amenities are quickly to carry out life-saving rehabilitation and care for giant stranded or sick dolphins and whales. Federal approvals are anticipated to be finalized in December.
Hunter Kinney (l) with Amanda Daniels (r), Dolphin Life’s chief momentum officer and good friend. The 2 labored to develop Dolphin Life’s Explorashorium Marinelife Museum at Dolphin Life in Islamorada. Credit score: Dolphin Life Inc.
At Dolphin Life Hospital, guests can tour its remedy and academic museum amenities. Day by day backlot rescue excursions, each day at 11 a.m. and a pair of:30 p.m., function a behind-the-scenes tour of the working hospital.
The power features a 40-foot-diameter pool, to open in October for long-term mammal rehabilitation.
Its Explorashorium is a 2,000-square-foot interactive museum-style area with aquariums, contact tanks and immersive rotating reveals; and an academic classroom-style area for conferences, small teams, occasions and seminars.
The Dolphin Life reward store options sustainable refillery gadgets and newly branded Dolphin Life clothes, merchandise, items and souvenirs. Gross sales of branded merchandise — “just like the Salt Life model” — are brisk, Kinney mentioned.
In addition to new merchandising, the rebranding of Dolphin Life. led by Kinney, contains new signage, emblem and immersive applications. A brand new Expertise the Dolphin Life in Key Largo half-day expertise features a tour, swimming and snorkeling with dolphins, a hands-on dolphin care exercise with behind-the-scenes care duties, and images and a T-shirt.
The Keys’ two main dolphin care organizations, Dolphin Life Inc. within the Higher Keys and Dolphin Analysis Heart within the Center Keys, have completely different missions.
Hunter Kinney (second from r) and his crew of Dolphin Life coaches, attired in new Dolphin Life rash guards. (l to r): Danika Smith, Maddie Jackson, Jenna Haberle, Kayla Lucero, Kinney and Cristina Cuhel. Credit score: Dolphin Life Inc.
The 41-year-old Dolphin Analysis Heart on Grassy Key was established in 1984 to supply a nonprofit sanctuary, analysis facility and eternally house to dolphins and California sea lions. DRC’s analysis program focuses on three foremost areas: cognition, habits and husbandry.
“Monroe County is house to extra mammal amenities than any county in America,” mentioned Rita Irwin, president and chief government officer of Dolphin Analysis Heart in Marathon. “We look ahead to persevering with our mutually supportive relationship with the Dolphin Life crew.”
Dolphin Life’s mission — to be South Florida’s solely working and educating veterinary hospital treating injured bottlenose dolphins, whales and different marine mammals — is to supply safety and care of rescued and stranded dolphins and whales and to supply eternally properties for non-releasable dolphins within the Keys.
Judy Hull, the Islamorada Chamber of Commerce’s government director, was instrumental in persuading Kinney, who’s in his early 30s, to turn into concerned with Keys tourism as a volunteer DAC IV member.
“Hunter is an inspiring steward of our wild sea life. By way of his management at Dolphin Life, the primary hospital and welcome middle of its sort in South Florida, he’s not solely saving dolphins and whales, he’s additionally educating the subsequent technology in regards to the significance of defending them,” mentioned Judy Hull, government director, the Islamorada Chamber of Commerce.
“Hunter brings unbelievable ardour and power to defending marine life. From hands-on care to group outreach, he’s making an actual distinction for dolphins, whales, and for future generations,” Hull mentioned.
Kinney lives in Islamorada with husband Luke, who directs Key Largo’s Island Dolphin Care. Dolphin Care’s mission is to supply distinctive, dolphin motivational, and academic applications to kids, adults with particular wants, their households and caregivers.
Keys Traveler: When did you first come to the Florida Keys and why?
Hunter Kinney: In fall 2015 to take part in a dolphin coaching internship. I knew I needed to work with dolphins for a profession, however didn’t have my eyes set on doing so within the Florida Keys till I used to be supplied a full-time place right here and determined to remain.
KT: What points of the Keys setting or lifestyle matter most to you?
HK: I completely love how distinctive the Florida Keys are — each by way of the environment and our Keys life-style. I got here from Kentucky and I don’t like chilly climate, so the sunshine and heat climate all through your complete 12 months is so uplifting and energizing. The islands are additionally so lower off from ‘metropolis life’ — I really feel like I’m dwelling in paradise, surrounded by lovely blue water and unbelievable wildlife. I see dolphins on daily basis at work, however I’m nonetheless mesmerized seeing them play out within the wild anytime I encounter them on the boat. The group right here can be so particular, related, and devoted to defending our group and tradition. (It additionally has no scarcity of character and enjoyable.)
KT: What impressed you to turn into enthusiastic about defending the Keys’ pure world and the way does that keenness impression your each day life and work?
HK: I’ve at all times liked animals and wildlife. I grew up round each farm animal you could possibly consider, and as quickly as I used to be sufficiently old began to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation clinic again house. Working with animals and wildlife has been part of my life for my total life. However dolphins have at all times had a particular place in my coronary heart, so I moved to the Keys to have the ability to work with them. Shortly after beginning, a bunch of dolphins beached themselves and our crew responded to them. I spotted there was a bridge between the wildlife rehabilitation and non-profit work I did again house and the dolphin world. This translated into my ardour for shielding the whales and dolphins right here within the Florida Keys and shapes every little thing I do at work.
KT: How do you personally work to ‘join and defend’ the Keys’ setting and the island chain’s distinctive life-style?
HK: I believe I’ve it straightforward — as a result of all people loves dolphins and they’re really easy to hook up with. My work revolves round bringing folks in and constructing a connection between themselves and our dolphins and our story of marine mammal rescue. When somebody will get within the water with a dolphin and begins to play with them and sees how we look after them, they will’t assist however construct a connection to a dwelling being. Pair that new connection to a dolphin with actionable methods to guard dolphins within the wild — and out of the blue there’s a new wildlife warrior serving to to guard dolphins which, in flip, protects the setting as a complete. Past this, my job is to be a storyteller — sharing the tales that individuals will join with. We deal with storytelling and getting the “story” proper. When the story is true, it makes folks really feel, and people emotions result in motion.
KT: What do you hope your environmental actions within the Keys will assist to perform?
HK: My foremost hope is that the wildlife in our yard — from the biggest (dolphins and whales) to the smallest (corals) — have a secure house right here within the Florida Keys eternally. However secondary to that, I hope our wildlife have the assist they want after they want it.
For me personally, that appears like ensuring the dolphins and whales have a rescue crew, a hospital, and a second likelihood at life in our native waters. On the uncommon event that launch isn’t an possibility, it’s vital that our dolphins have a loving, eternally house to reside out life. I hope that our actions, applications, and experiences are all instruments that assist us advocate for a greater future for dolphins and whales worldwide.
