Monday, January 31, 2022

Stories from the Seaside - The E-Newsletter from the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea

January 2022
Happy New Year from Gulf Specimen Marine Lab! Check out our top stories from this month!
First Sea Turtle Release of 2022: Princess Hope the Loggerhead
On Wednesday, January 26th at about 3:10, Hope the Loggerhead made her way back home! At least 200 people showed up to wish Hope the best on her journey back into the gulf! Hope was rescued on October 20th, 2021 and spent the last few months in our care at Gulf Specimen. When she was deemed healthy enough for release, and red tide was no longer detected in our area, we started planning her release!
We would like to personally praise and thank the Franklin County Sheriff's Office for their involvement since day one of Hope's rescue! On the day of Hope's stranding, the Sheriff's Office were the first one's called to the scene. At the beach, they loaded sweet Hope into their truck and transported her to us, where we then brought Hope to Gulf Specimen. On the day of her release, they helped carry her down the beach and be a part of her big day!
When we first saw Hope being unloaded from transport back in October, we had little faith that she would make it through the night, but she proved us all wrong. After continuous care and many gallons of IV fluids, Hope started to show signs of recovery and after several months of feeding, swimming and resting, we got to say goodbye to this giant sweetheart and watch her swim off to continue her long life!

We want to thank our staff member Kylee Lindsey and our volunteer vet Dr. Julie O'Brien for their round the clock care and monitoring of Hope while in rehab. We also wanted to thank everyone who supported Hope throughout her rehab! We are so grateful for all of the Amazon donations, monetary donations and visits to the aquarium to see her! We couldn't have the program we do without your support!
Volunteer Florida Visits Gulf Specimen
A big thank you to Volunteer Florida CEO, Corey Simon and COO, Erin Sjostrom for visiting us on Friday to see our newly completed classroom, parking lot and more! These improvements would not have been possible without a generous grant from Volunteer Florida and private donations. We truly appreciate our partnership with an organization that values volunteerism and the contributions they make to nonprofits like Gulf Specimen.
Check Out Our New Models For Our Aquarium
Since the completion of our new parking lot this past summer, we have steadily been receiving large, life-like models of marine fish, turtles, and mammals to display around our parking lot and around our aquarium! Our most recent delivery consisted of a 17-foot great white shark, a tarpon, and two bottlenose dolphins, one adult and one baby. We are in the process of adding educational and informative signs around the parking lot with facts and information about the species we have displayed!
These life-like models will allow visitors and guests to see the true size of these animals compared to humans. Although, we have to add that our gigantic blue crab outside our aquarium is the only exaggerated animal we have, and that blue crabs do not reach sizes that large, we just know it makes a great photo-op and allows you to see the legs and claws up close!
Our parking lot models include dolphins, a sunfish, green sea turtle, goliath grouper, blue marlin, tarpon, and the great white shark! The models we are displaying inside our aquarium includes a Florida manatee, a bull shark, hammerhead shark, spotted eagle ray, leatherback sea turtle, sawfish, and an American alligator and crocodile! We have had several of these models inside our aquarium for a while now, but we are so excited to get started on the educational signs that go with each animal and tell their story, so you know a little more about the animals and where they reside!
What Happens When We Get New Interns?
We are so pleased to announce we have six new interns and one new volunteer joining our team for the spring 2022 semester! When new interns start, our priority is to get them familiar and comfortable with all of the animals in our aquarium, so they are confident enough to educate the public about all of our cool critters as well as handle them when needed! Intern and volunteer training consists of animal knowledge as well as learning how to clean aquarium tanks, feed animals, give tours, and collect specimens.

Our internship is 100% hands-on. This month alone, our interns learned how to give tours, safely handle a 120 pound sea turtle for topical medications, feed critters ranging from sharks and octopus to sponges and corals, as well as participate in a sea turtle release! On the daily, interns are interacting with animals locally found in the Gulf of Mexico and gaining knowledge and experiences that will last a lifetime! We are so excited for you to meet our interns, but you'll have to wait for next month's newsletter, come meet them in-person at the aquarium, or check our Facebook page for us to start introducing them!
2022 Field Trips are Getting Started
We are starting 2022 strong with some super fun field trips and a birthday party! We are starting to get busier and busier with field trips and family tours, so if you are interested in touring our aquarium, we suggest booking ahead of time to guarantee your preferred date and time!

Wonders of the Gulf:
Creature Feature
North Florida is gifted with an amazing array of diverse animals where we find fascinating creatures. Our exhibits change every season.
Upside-Down Jellyfish:
A beautiful brown and white jelly fish found by the thousands among the roots of mangroves in the southern Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and other tropical waters. Cassiopea gracefully pulsate through the water, landing upside down on the muddy bottom sediment to expose the symbiotic algae in their tissues to the sun.
Clam Worm:
The representative polychaete with large jaws and well developed parapods. They are excellent for demonstration under the dissecting scope. As active errant polychaetes they leave their muddy “false tubes” and prey upon other polychaetes. Their iridescent colors will delight students. 
Horse Conch:
The largest gastropod in the Gulf of Mexico. It has a pointed shell and a huge orange foot making it a striking demonstration piece. Shell may be encrusted with a variety of worms, barnacles and bryozoans. Does not feed on clams, but feeds on other carnivorous gastropods.
Lettuce Sea Slug:
Commonly found in warm, tropical waters, it has green and white ruffles resembling lettuce! Feeds on real sea lettuce and other algae. It is a sacoglossan which means that they are herbivores, and do not feed on sponges or hydroids.
Gulf Specimen Marine Lab | (850) 984-5297 | gulfspecimen.org


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