Dear Friends of Gulf Specimen Marine Lab,
We hope that you all are staying safe and healthy during this unfortunate situation. We are lucky to have many friends in the community and we would like to let you know that we are thinking of all of you and hoping that you are doing well. We’re sure you’ve heard about businesses closing due to the Coronavirus. Gulf Specimen is not immune to the situation. In order to keep our doors open and our animals fed and taken care of, we rely on funds from school field trips to our aquarium, visitors to the aquarium and sales of marine specimens to universities for educational purposes only. In the past few days we have had all school field trips for the next three months canceled and it looks like possibly through the end of summer. Most all orders for universities have been canceled through the end of spring semester and it looks like it could be the same through summer.
As you can imagine the number of visitors to the aquarium has drop dramatically as well. We have already lost thousands of dollars in revenue and we predict that we will lose over a $100,000 more in revenue by the end of the summer from this outbreak. Losing three to six months of revenue for any non-profit is devastating. Currently our plan is to lay off most employees. This is a last resort and something we hate to do. We know that many other businesses in the community are in the same situation and we feel for them.
Our staff are working hard to quickly shift gears and offer alternatives to our customers. We are offering virtual field trips instead of field trips to the aquarium. We are suggesting to university professors that they offer video lab demonstrations for their students. We are hoping that most teachers will be interested in a virtual field trip and we’re hoping that many professors will want to do a video lab but we realize even if these strategies work we will face a significant drop in funds. It is hard for any business to be ready for this type of situation.
We are considering any and all creative ideas to keep Gulf Specimen a float during this situation. That is why we are reaching out to you. We know that many people in the community are in the same situation as we are but if you do have the resources to help we would greatly appreciate it. Gulf Specimen Marine Lab has been in operation for over 50 years and we want to keep being a part of the community. We have conducted marine life educational programs for hundreds of thousands of children in our many years of operation. Our programs teach students about marine life, ecosystems and the importance of protecting them. Currently the cost of a guided tour of our aquarium for school children is $8.50. We keep our prices low because we want to provide a service to the community and educate the public to help create good stewards of our oceans. Many of our staff and college interns have gone on to be teachers, work at public aquariums, FWC staff or work at other marine life educational facilities. Marine specimens supplied by Gulf Specimen to universities have been instrumental in important and ground breaking research.
We are currently calculating the amount of funding it would take for Gulf Specimen to barely make it through this situation. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. To make a donation you can call our main office or go on our website here. Thank you for your time and we hope you stay safe and healthy.
Sincerely,
Cypress Rudloe
Executive Director
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