Dolphin Research Center, Dolphinarium on Grassy Key, Florida Keys, United States.

The Dolphin Research Center is a dolphinarium on Grassy Key, Florida, made up of a 90,000-square-foot series of saltwater lagoons blasted into the seashore with dynamite by fisherman Milton Santini. It holds 28 dolphins as of 2026, 27 bottlenose and one Atlantic spotted, plus four California sea lions, three harbor seals, six parrots and two African spurred tortoises.

Fisherman Milton Santini opened Santini's Porpoise School here in 1958, blasting the lagoons out of the seashore with dynamite; his dolphin Mitzi and four others appeared in Flipper and its 1964 sequel. The site became Flipper's Sea School in 1972, then the Institute for Delphinid Research under Jean Paul Fortom-Gouin from 1977, closed to the public. Armando and Jayne Rodriguez founded the Dolphin Research Center in 1984.

The center's name traces to its 1984 founding by Armando "Mandy" and Jayne Rodriguez, who had managed the site under Jean Paul Fortom-Gouin. Its dolphins appeared in the 1963 film Flipper and its 1964 sequel, and the grounds later served as the "Atlantic Dolphin Research" center in the early-1990s TV series Key West.

The center sits on Grassy Key, not Marathon, so allow for the drive along Overseas Highway. General admission covers narrated behavior sessions held through the day; in-water interactions and programs such as Ultimate Trainer for the Day cost extra and are best booked ahead. The 90,000-square-foot site is a series of saltwater lagoons, so expect open water and sun.

The center's dolphins have taken part in cognition studies: in a 2018 trial, pairs learned to press underwater buttons within one second of each other, the first dolphin waiting for its partner's command. A 2021 study found that rising human-made noise cut their cooperative task success from 85% to 62.5%.