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

April 2022

Our New Mural at Gulf Specimen

A whole week of work certainly paid off! Our beautiful mural is complete! This mural is complete with larger than life critters like the electric ray, a goliath grouper, a green moray eel, a pregnant male seahorse and a cannonball jellyfish! We could not be happier with the finished product and we hope you enjoy it just as much! Come and see the mural for yourself and make sure to tag us in any photos you post! Facebook: @GulfSpecimenAquarium Instagram: @gulfspecimenaquarium

A Sea Turtle Lectures for The Senior Center Visitors

On Tuesday, April 5th, Gulf Specimen Marine Lab hosted visitors from the Wakulla Senior Center for a sea turtle lecture in our classroom followed by a tour through our aquarium. The lecture was taught by our executive director, Cypress Rudloe and assisted by our office assistant, Kylee Lindsey. As part of the lecture, we demonstrated different animals the sea turtles, native to Florida, might feed on in the wild.

New...or Old...T-shirts in Our Gift Shop

We have decided to bring back one of our old t-shirt designs and we could not be more excited! Our "vintage" GSML t-shirt was designed by our very own office manager, Debbi Clifford! This shirt was our first t-shirt ever sold in our gift shop! It was originally designed in 1995 and was discontinued about 15 years ago. We are thrilled to bring this original design back to our gift shop after all these years! Come and check out our gift shop! We are open 7 days a week!

Meet the Interns: Kyle & Betsy

Kyle is a recent graduate of San Jose State University, completing his bachelor's degree in marine biology and hoping to further his academic pursuits in environmental law and sustainable underwater gardening. Since he could swim, he has had a keen passion for marine life and a vocation for its protection in an ever-changing world, by inviting participation through education and awareness. His interests lie in wildlife photojournalism as well as focusing on creating an effective and efficient sea turtle rehabilitation program. Kyle is currently pursuing his interests in cave diving and exploring potential research on organisms that inhabit the freshwater springs of northern Florida as well as shark diving ecotourism. Betsy is a fourth year student at FSU majoring in Environmental Science with a minor in Biology. She’s grown up going to the beach, and has always had an interest and love for marine species, especially marine mammals, and is extremely excited to be intending at the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab where she gets to have hands-on experience with multiple different species. Her favorite part about interning would have to be feeding the animals, especially hand feeding the stingrays, nurse sharks, and octopi. Her favorite species would have to be the stingrays, octopi, and sea turtles! Betsy is currently in the process of applying for graduate school, in hopes to be accepted in a research program focused on marine mammal rehabilitation.

Our 2022 Summer Camp

We still have openings for our summer camp! We have few for week 1 but week 2 has a lot of slots we need to fill! If you know anyone with kids completed kindergarten through 5th grade interested in a marine science summer opportunity, call us today at (850)984-5297! You can check our website here for more information!

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.

Bay Scallop: An active colorful bivalve that swims around the aquarium in spasmodic jerks. Has around 60 sapphire blue eye spots on its frilled mantle.

Southern Sting Ray: Larger then the Atlantic stingray. Females can reach a disc width of up to 150cm.These bottom feeders are very common in bays and shallow sandy bottoms.

Mole Crab: An active small anomuran crustacean living in the surf zone. It burrows vigorously through sand, disappears in seconds, and can be easily studied in the classroom.

Parchment Worm: Lives in a U-shaped tube, which can be replaced by glass to observe the elaborate specialization of segments. The worm is brilliantly luminescent. A small commensal crab is usually found in the tube.

Gulf Specimen Marine Lab | (850) 984-5297 | gulfspecimen.org Support Us Here!  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌

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