BOW Visits Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory

B.O.W. Visits Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Florida

B.O.W. Visits GULF SPECIMEN

MARINE LABORATORY in Panacea, Florida

50 BETTER OFF WET | SEPTEMBER 2022

B.O.W. Visits Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Florida

Where the Sea Reveals its Secrets

At Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, you begin to get a better sense of what’s really out there. On a quiet back street between the highway and the bay, we house a collection of sea water tanks and aquariums. Water bubbles and flows in a swirl that sustains unique collections of the bizarre and the beautiful. Unlike most big public aquariums, that emphasize Porpoises and big fishes, we focus on creatures such as Seahorses and Hermit Crabs, Emerald Eyed Spiny Box Fish, Electric Rays, and Red and White Spotted Calico Crabs – just a few of the endless living treasures of North Florida’s still and shining coast. Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory was established in 1963, Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory is an independent,

nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization that provides marine life to schools and research laboratories. We also study endangered species and conduct research in mariculture, farming the edge of the sea. Today we are an integral part of numerous research programs all over the United States, Canada and Europe. In 1995, due to continued strong growth in interest and attendance, GSML began a program to more strongly emphasize educational programs for regional schools, aquarium display and public visitation. We strive to keep from damaging the fragile marine habitats, and actively oppose pollution and careless coastal development so that the sea will continue to bring forth. Please help us protect the earth which grows such strange and beautiful creatures. Support the preservation and protection of natural area and avoid over

consumptive habits. Our sea urchins and sponges have been sent to outer space and have been studied using some of the most sophisticated technology our society has to offer. Yet as modern day “hunter gatherers” we employ many of the simple harvesting techniques that Indians, who subsisted on this bountiful Panhandle coast, used thousands of years ago. Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory’s mission is to further through study, research, publication, teaching and public display the knowledge of marine biology; to promote protection of marine life and the marine environment; to collect, classify and disseminate marine biological specimens. Giving people an appreciation for the diversity of life in the sea and a desire to protect it is Gulf Specimen’s primary mission. We do so by using our touch tanks, graphic exhibits and

BETTEROFFWET.COM 51

B.O.W. Visits Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Florida

52 BETTER OFF WET | SEPTEMBER 2022

conducting field trips to provide a unique “hands-on” experience enabling students to touch, smell, and hear the odd and interesting creatures of the Gulf of Mexico, and develop an awareness and desire to protect the fragile life in the Sea. To help maintain this facility, we supply schools and research laboratories with a wide variety of living marine life from the Gulf of Mexico. That service is essential to researchers all over the United States in many different fields of science; hence we have won state, national and international awards for our efforts.

B.O.W. Visits Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Florida

While most aquariums feature large charismatic marine mammals and sharks, Gulf Specimen focuses on the fascinating world of the small. More than a hundred school groups and over 20,000 individuals visit our laboratory each year to view hundreds of species of local invertebrates, fish and algae as well as sharks and Sea Turtles from the Gulf of Mexico.

BETTEROFFWET.COM 53

B.O.W. Visits Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Florida

Our exhibits are never the same twice. The marine biological supply operation that supports the laboratory provides a constant flow of animals, coming through the lab. A wide variety of invertebrates, fishes, and algae are routinely collected by local fishermen and shipped to schools and research laboratories, hence no aquarium or standard marine laboratory with static exhibits can compete with it. At any given time, between one and two hundred species are present. Visitors are allowed to pick up and touch many of the animals, including Starfish, Sea Pansies, Sand Dollars, Whelks, Clams, and etc. Whether our visitors are pre-school, high school, college students, or casual visitors, they all ask the same fundamental questions: “What is it? Where does it live? What does it eat? What eats it, and how does it reproduce?”

54 BETTER OFF WET | SEPTEMBER 2022

B.O.W. Visits Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Florida

While visitors are touching and seeing, we use the opportunity to tell them of the problems facing Florida’s ecosystems and how they can protect it. In addition to working with children and rehabilitating wounded or sick sea turtles, we work closely with biomedical institutions studying the ocean’s vast storehouse for sources of potential new pharmaceuticals and have become an integral part of numerous research programs all over the United States, Canada and Europe. After a visit to our lab, instead of stepping over or on much of the life when they’re on the beach, people will notice. No longer will they stare puzzled at the “blob on the beach”. They will understand the diversity of life in the sea and perhaps have a desire to protect it.

BETTEROFFWET.COM 55

B.O.W. Visits Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Florida

*Children must be supervised. Certain tanks are for “looking only”; while others you are allowed to touch. When you purchase your ticket to the aquarium, you will be informed on which tanks are touching and not touching. The tanks will also have signs indicating whether they are “looking” or “touching.” Do not put your hands near the water or on the rim of the tank for the “looking” tanks! Our animals associate people with food and may have sharp teeth. Make sure children are always accompanied by an adult, when in the aquarium. Text from www.gulfspecimen.org Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory gspecimen@sprintmail.com Phone: (850)984-5297 P.O. Box 237 222 Clark Drive Panacea, Florida 32346 HOURS Monday-Friday: 9AM – 5PM Saturday-Sunday: 10AM – 5PM We are closed to the public on the following holidays: Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Years Day.

56 BETTER OFF WET | SEPTEMBER 2022