TAMPA - As one of downtown Tampa's premiere tourist destinations, the Florida Aquarium takes pride in its accessibility to people with disabilities.
But there's one feature of the aquarium that has no accommodations, 17 years after it opened to the public, and that has one advocate for the disabled urging quicker action.
The aquarium says it has overcome most of the hurdles to opening up the twice-daily dolphin-spotting cruises it offers aboard its 72-foot catamaran. A 72-foot floating dock has been designed that would enable wheelchairs to easily roll onto the boat and approvals for construction have been obtained.
Now, the non-profit aquarium - which operates on a 250,000 that the project will cost.
Ben Ritter, co-chairman of the Tampa Mayor's Alliance for Persons with Disabilities, says the demand for access is now.
"We have people coming in from the north, from overseas, on cruise ships, and a certain number of those people have mobility impairments but can't take advantage of this boat," Ritter said. "Let's get this going."
Annual attendance at the aquarium is more than 800,000, with 52,000 visitors boarding the Bay Spirit II in 2017 for the 75-minute dolphin tour.
But passengers must walk down as many as six steps to reach the deck if the tide is low, impossible for some and difficult for others.
Options discussed in the past included a device that could lower passengers into the boat and raise them out of it, but safety concerns about such a waterside operation killed the idea.
There were delays in the approval process because of the floating dock's location between two much bigger docking areas - one serving the World War II-era S.S. American Victory and Maritime Museum and one the terminal for Carnival cruise lines.
Permission from Port Tampa Bay and the United States Coast Guard was required.
Designed by Jacksonville's Bellingham Marine, which also will do the construction, the new dock will rise and fall with tides as the Bay Spirit II does. It will attach to the current wharf via one ramp and to the boat with another.
Still, the design and green light for development are now a year old and the aquarium has yet to start a public fundraising campaign. Instead, it is relying on a "silent phase," asking project advocates to help find benefactors.
"It's always easier to have one or two donors than lots of checks," said aquarium spokesman Richard Glover.
For now, advocate Ritter and others are seeking philanthropists.
Ritter said he is willing to lead this venture, but he'd also like to see the aquarium take a more proactive approach.
"This should be a high priority," he said. "Let's not kick this can down the road."
After a recent meeting with aquarium leaders, Ritter moderated his view: "All good things come to those who wait, as long as there are people working diligently to make things happen."
The Florida Aquarium complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, providing necessary amenities in places like elevators, bathrooms, showers and locker rooms.
This summer, the aquarium will add a wheelchair lift to its a scuba diving tank to replace the current practice of having employees carry disabled people.
The diving tank, like the dolphin cruises, require an added cost beyond general admission to the aquarium.
"They are upgraded experiences," Glover said. "That is one reason it has taken longer to get the funds."
Glover estimates the new dock will serve a few hundred Bay Spirit II passengers a year.
"It at times has been a struggle to figure out what might work under the constraints that existed," said Sandra Sroka, former American Disabilities Act coordinator with Hillsborough County, who has been advocating for a decade to make the dolphin cruises accessible to people with disabilities.
"But we never gave up and we are almost there."
Contact Paul Guzzo at pguzzo@tampabay.com. Follow @PGuzzoTimes.