GULF SPECIMEN MARINE LAB has long been known as a really fun, amazing place to visit in Florida’s Big Bend area. Located in Panacea, FL, this nonprofit organization has featured a hands-on museum of living marine creatures for young students to interact with and learn from.
Additionally, Gulf Specimen has provided marine specimens for important biomedical research. Cancer and Alzheimer’s research have benefitted from our local creatures. Jack and Anne Rudloe, founders of Gulf Specimen, also work to protect our marine environment and have authored many books and articles about natural life along the coast. And now they are turning their attention to the safety and preservation of these same marine creatures threatened with extinction by the BP Deepwater Horizon’s oil disaster. In response to the huge amount of oil that was released into the Gulf by the damaged well, Gulf Specimen’s “Operation Noah’s Ark” was created and has been working feverishly to preserve clean, healthy seawater and delicate coastal specimens so they can re-seed the coast after the oil, should it become necessary to do so.
OPERATION NOAH’S ARK & THE SHRIMP FARM GULF SPECIMEN has located a defunct commercial shrimp farm near its lab in Panacea and has negotiated with owners to use its large abandoned tanks to preserve clean seawater for Operation Noah’s Ark. But $2.5 million is needed to marry aquaculture with fishing in order to repopulate the Gulf with sport and commercial species, and to rejuvenate the economy. Florida depends on its marine life to a high degree! This project could become a joint venture and provide live shrimp bait for commercial applications. A completed rehab of this old shrimp farm would allow Gulf Specimen to preserve local brood stock so the young could be raised and released back into the wild sea. (Most commercial shrimp in stores is from South America and are unsuitable for reseeding our Gulf waters.)
GULF SPECIMEN & THE IMPORTANCE OF NON-FOOD SPECIES Seahorses, horseshoe crabs, starfish, sand dollars, little crabs, and all other non-food species have their place in the Web of Life. The species we humans care about the most: Sea turtles, porpoises and birds, all depend on thousands of other species that humans do not use as food. And many we’ve never heard of. Operation Noah’s Ark is working to preserve as many of these important species as we can.
Explaining Operation Noah's Ark
Photo Updates
Read “Saving marine invertebrates from gulf oil spill takes some backbone” in the LA Times Read “Operation Noah’s Ark Aims to Preserve Sea Life” in the Tallahassee Democrat Read “A modern Noah's Ark?” in the St. Petersburg Times
Gulf Specimen's Videos:
Operation Noah's Ark On The Web: Gulf Specimen Lab Plans Noah's Ark Operation Oil could cause ‘catastrophic’ wildlife damage Written before oil spill, new 'UnspOiled:
THE EROTIC OCEAN, The following is an excerpt from my book, THE EROTIC OCEAN, HANDBOOK FOR BEACH COMBERS published by World Publishing Company in 1971. It describes the impacts of oil spills on marine life, and offers suggestions of how to document it. The information is just as valid now as it was forty years ago; only with modern technology (digital cameras, camcorders and GPS) citizens can better document kills and pollution and gather evidence as it occurs. We don’t have to feel powerless, we can upload our pictures to the social media on YouTube, Face book, Share and Twitter for the world to see and make sure that a Deepwater Horizon type spill never happens again. See our link on YouTube:  Registration# CH14450 |
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