Local’s Choice Tips from Mandy Rodriguez
Armando “Mandy” Rodriguez is co-founder and chief operating officer of the Middle Keys’ famed Dolphin Research Center, celebrating its 40th birthday as a nonprofit sanctuary, research facility and forever home.
Rodriguez is the patriarch of 27 dolphins, ages 2 to 50; eight children and five grandchildren; and a staff of nearly 100.
“We don’t own our dolphins; they’re our partners,” he said.
In 1984, Rodriguez and his late wife Jayne acquired Santini’s Porpoise School on Grassy Key, nicknamed the “Flipper Sea School,” where the hit movie “Flipper” was filmed.
A native Cuban, Rodriguez came to the United States at age 10. He enlisted in the Marines at 19, spent 10 months in Vietnam and returned to the U.S. with post-traumatic stress disorder. Today he’s instrumental in providing Wounded Warriors opportunities to swim with dolphins in the Middle Keys.
For Rodriguez, nurturing and training bottlenose dolphins, sea lions and two giant African spurred tortoises is “a healing process. To me every day is precious.”
Each of the dolphins, he said, has its own “dolphinality.”
The oldest, Tulsi, nicknamed “Super Mom,” is the daughter of two dolphins that starred in the original “Flipper.” Her 51st birthday is in November.
Currently DRC is undergoing an expansion to a total of six acres. A new sea lion habitat is scheduled for completion by September 2025.
“As I grow, DRC is also growing, learning better and new ways to educate the public about these amazing animals,” Rodriguez said.
A Marathon resident in his mid-70s, he typically can be found at DRC at least five days per week.
But in reality, he said, “I haven’t worked a day in my life.”
His motto: “My father always said that when you hear a violin play, most people hear the music. Only one person knows — and that’s the person who built the violin — what’s inside that violin.”
Where he dines: King Seafood Market & Restaurant in Marathon for its seafood and Cuban food.
Where he explores: “I’m still finding out new things at Dolphin Research Center; it’s my best exploring place.”
How he relaxes: Hanging out with his kids, fishing and playing in the water.
Armando Mandy Rodriguez is co-founder and chief operating officer of the Middle Keys’ famed Dolphin Research Center. Photos courtesy of Mandy Rodriguez.
Rodriguez says that caring for, researching and training the animals at DRC makes every day precious.
Rodriguez with Ziggy, the larger of two African spurred tortoises adopted by the DRC when their owners could no longer care for them.