A lost seahorse was named after an Olympic swimmer. What about the hundreds of babies?
Bobby Finke’s name is revered in Olympic pools — he just won two gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. But now, it’s also being honored in the waters at his hometown aquarium.
Last Friday, someone spotted a seahorse floating in the water, and in sensing that it needed help, brought it to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, according to the attraction’s website.
An aquarium veterinarian released air that was trapped inside the seahorse, causing the little guy to float. The seahorse was still having “buoyancy issues” after the procedure, making it difficult for him to survive in the wild. So he was considered “non-releasable” by state wildlife officials, according to Fox News Channel 13.
Days later, though, what the aquarium thought would just be one seahorse quickly grew in numbers — he gave birth to hundreds of baby seahorses. Before you do a pronoun double-take, know that seahorses are one of the few species in which the males get pregnant and give birth.
New home and name for the seahorse
The guy and his fries have a new home — a baby seahorse is called a fry — but the daddy seahorse was still missing a name. The aquarium posted a call out asking for suggestions to help name the wayward seahorse.
“There were many great contenders, but the un-finkeable happened and one surged from behind to beat them all! Meet Bobby the seahorse, named in honor of Clearwater’s Olympic hero, Bobby Finke, who won two incredible gold medals in swimming,” the CMA website reads.
Finke was an Olympic gold medalist and an alum of Countryside High School and the University of Florida.
CMA has raised $1,175 in response to a video posted about Bobby.
The aquarium posted the other top 100 names on its website, writing that they would be reserved for the babies. Bobby and his fries are doing well and are under observation by aquarium staff, Fox News Channel 13 reported.
The hundreds of babies could be candidates for release, according to veterinarians, but it will depend on levels of red tide in the waters, according to Fox News.
For now, Bobby and his fries will reside in the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
Thursday morning, Bobby — the fish — got a visit from his Olympic gold medal-winning namesake, Bobby Finke, according to the aquarium.
“It’s awesome. It’s definitely an honor. I just love all the support that everyone’s given me and especially to this aquarium. It means the world to me,” Finke said during the visit. “It’s just an honor to have something named after you.”
Who’s Bobby Finke?
Finke, 21, may be more akin to a dolphin than a seahorse, however.
Earlier this month in Tokyo at the delayed Summer Games, Finke won Olympics gold in the men’s 800-meter freestyle with a new American record of 7:41.87. He also won swimming’s longest event, the 1,500-meter free (also called the mile) in 14:39:65, to become the first American man to win that event since Mike O’Brien won the race in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, according to Gator Sports.
But in both races, Finke’s burst of speed catapulted him into the lead in the last 50 meters of the races to give him those victories.
Then there is Bobby the seahorse.
Seahorses, according to Ocean Conservancy, are “awful swimmers.” They are the slowest-moving of all fish species because of their design: a tiny fin in the middle of their backs is their only means of forward propulsion. That fin can beat back and forth up to 50 times a second, but there’s only so much it can do given its size. No gold medal opportunity there.
For Bobby Finke, and those exciting race closures after nearly 15 minutes of nonstop churning in the mile, is more like the bottlenose dolphin, which can hit speeds of 18 miles per hour, according to Ocean Conservancy.
For Bobby the seahorse, no chance at the next Olympics in France.
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 2:56 PM.
