About Gulf Specimen Marine Lab
An Interactive Nature Center
Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization founded in 1963 and incorporated in 1980 to support marine research and education both on site and at universities throughout the U.S. and Canada. 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. (Read more about our history here.)
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 conducting field trips to provide a unique "hands-on" experience enabling students to touch, smell, hear and even taste 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.
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 16,000 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.
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 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, etc.
Whether pre-schoolers, high school, college students or casual visitors, 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?"
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.
GULF SPECIMEN MARINE LAB • PO BOX 237 • PANACEA, FL 32346 USA • (850) 984-5297 • FAX (850) 984-5233
