Gulf Specimen Marine Lab

Oil Spill Response

Whether it’s evidenced by walking on oil soaked

beaches or the loss of sea bird sightings and cries,

the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the

Gulf of Mexico will last many years. In a small but

necessary attempt to address this problem, Gulf

Specimen Marine Laboratory is asking BP to provide

funds for the retrofitting its lab facilities and a nearby

closed shrimp hatchery so we can hold a wide variety

of marine life for an extended period of time.

In particular we are proposing a new project

called “Operation Noah’s Ark”. The goal is to help

restore local marine life and help rebuild the fishing

industry in the area. The project focuses on shrimp

aquaculture with shrimp to be grown from egg to

juvenile in hatchery tanks. Then, after the sea is no

longer polluted with oil, the shrimp will be released to

grow and reproduce into a population that can be

harvested by fishermen. Releasing captive raised

juvenile shrimp into the bays will also jump start the

food chain.

Before the oil (sheen, tar ball, or weathered oil) hits our region the lab must

sever our connection with the sea or our tanks will be poisoned. We must then

function like more costly inland aquariums such as Sea World or the Georgia

Aquarium that use artificial sea salts and massive filtration. This is tried and true big

buck technology in large multimillion dollar aquariums but we have never tried to do

it on our smaller scale.

Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory

Panacea, Florida

Ph 850-984-5297

www.gulfspecimen.org

June, 2010

Vol. 12 , no.2

With the help of volunteers and donations that have come into Paypal on

our website

,

we are working against the clock trying

to restore a submerged seawater pipeline that once

ran into a closed down shrimp farm at the head of

Dickerson Bay. We hope to store a hundred

thousand gallons of “healthy sea water” before the

oil drifts into Apalachee Bay and kills the marshes,

the giant herds of fiddler crabs, and the myriad of

other species that live there. We hope to get an

oil\water separator to clean oily water, then to filter and treat it with ozone until

all traces of hydrocarbons vanish. How will we know when it’s clean enough to

support life? Only when we mix sea urchin sperm and eggs together and the

cells divide normally can we declare success. With the oil and dispersants

killing plankton, eggs and larvae, that’s probably not happening out at sea.

In addition to storing water, all of our staff and an army of temp workers

and volunteers has been working 7 days a week to install larger drain lines so

that we can put in much larger sump tanks to circulate the larger volumes of

water and to replace the fiddler crab tank which runs on sea water straight

from the bay with a larger one that can operate without losing any water back

to the bay. We also hope to raise the money to install additional water filtration

equipment including UV, ozone, and oil-water separators.

Since nobody knows when or where the oil will hit, it

has been a race against the clock with people working in

100 degree heat wading through salt marshes, oyster bars

and knee deep black mud to restore the old sea water line

to the shrimp farm, dig trenches, epoxy the inside of

cement tanks and cut up huge fiberglass tanks.

Backhoes and front end loaders have joined shovels

and pick axes to get the job done.

If we get this done before the oil hits, we then

plan to collect and hold as many animals of as many

different marine species as possible in the hopes of

someday being able to rerelease local life back into

the ocean to help with the recovery of decimated populations. We would also

like to reopen the shrimp hatchery to raise and release millions of baby shrimp

if sufficient money could be found.

The outpouring of volunteer labor, facilities and donations to get the job

done has been wonderful. Bill Anderson, the owner of the old shrimp farm, has

donated the use of the outside facilities. Johnny Millender of Carrabelle has given us

huge fiberglass tanks and Progress Energy has agreed to waive fees to turn on power

where more is needed. Cash donations are paying for tools, extra non volunteer labor

and new pumps.

People want to believe that there is something that they can do to help and our

Project Noah’s Ark has so far been one of the few projects in which individual initiative

has been welcomed rather than discouraged by huge corporate and government

bureaucracies. The project has received extensive press coverage from both local

media, The St Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald.

Will it do any good? Is it all a drop in the oily ocean? Is it like simply closing the

windows and doors as the F-5 tornado approaches? Nobody can answer that

question at this point in time. But when the kids on the field trips (and the adults as

well) ask “What can we do?”, we simply can’t bring ourselves to say, “We don’t know

what to do.”

Once many years ago, we walked along a sea turtle nesting beach in Costa

Rica with several native women the morning after a mass nesting. The women kept

stopping to pick up sea turtle hatchlings that had gotten lost and gently released the

tiny creatures into the ocean.

“Will it do any good?” we asked.

“We don’t know,” they answered, “but we can only try.”

TO DONATE MONEY, GO TO OUR WEBSITE WWW.GULFSPECIMEN.ORG AND

USE THE PAYPAL LINK. TO VOLUNTEER, CONTACT OUR VOLUNTEER

COORDINATOR MIRANDA MANNING AT 850-984-5297. PEOPLE WITH

DIFFERENT SKILL SETS WILL BE NEEDED AT DIFFERENT POINTS IN THE

PROCESS AND SHE IS BUILDING A DATABASE OF POTENTIAL VOLUNTEERS.

Shrimp Farms in Thailand

In mid April, Jack and Anne Rudloe traveled to Thailand to visit shrimp farms. The owners of

Charoen Pokphand Foods in Bangkok were so impressed with the

book, Shrimp, the Endless Quest for Pink Gold, they invited the Rud-

loes to tour their gigantic shrimp farms where they raise an average of

twelve thousand pounds of South American white shrimp and five

thousand pounds of Tiger Prawns per acre. Our conclusion, after two

weeks of study, is that Thai shrimp raised using modern production

methods are free of antibiotics, safe to eat, and are produced in clean

ponds without bycatch or harming sea turtles. Corporate farm staff are

well trained and fairly paid. Furthermore, small independent farmers of-

ten use shrimp wastes to fertilize oil palm plantations to produce bio-

diesel fuel, demonstrating that in at least one part of the world, shrimp and oil can mix. They also saw

oyster farms where oysters are grown on racks at sea and, along with shrimp and Tilapia culture, have

produced a thriving coastal economy.

A NON PROFIT

ORGANIZATION

Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory

PO Box 237

Panacea, Fl 32346

www.gulfspecimen.org

2

nd

Annual Sharks and Chablis Fundraiser

Our second annual Sharks and Chablis fundraiser, held on

May 23rd, was a huge success. Over 500 people enjoyed wine,

seafood, music and fun while interacting with our sea creatures and

staff. The event raised about $ $20,000 which will be used toward

replacing the large fish tank and retrofitting the aquarium to survive the oil spill.

Thanks to everyone who made our Sharks and Chablis fundraiser a great

success. We especially wish to thank our sponsors including MY107.1, 94.9 TNT, Blue

Planet Kids.com, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, Capital City Bank, Wakulla Bank, Wildwood

Resort, Tallahassee Democrat, Lamar, Advertising, Seineyard Restaurant and Miranda

Manning and friends who provided the food, Sheriff David Harvey, Morris Brown

Construction and Printing on Demand. A special thanks to the many people who

donated items to the silent auction and who staffed it along with Debbi Clifford.

Exhibitors included FSU Marine Laboratory volunteers, The Florida Fish & Wildlife

Conservation Commission, Florida Wild Mammal Association, Venomous Snake Exhibit

by Susan Sentman, Flint Knapping by George Weymouth, Farmed Clams by Van &

Mary Lewis, Wilderness Coast Ltd., the Florida Green Guide Association, Just Fruits

and Exotics, chair massages by Ben Beldock, portraits by Mary Lawson, music by

Sammy Tedder & Rick Ott plus Didja Vu and dancers from Tallahassee Irish Step

Dancers and Flamenco Fever with Anne Lippe & Friends. Nancy Fisher provided the

cake. Sky Rudloe was the Master of Ceremonies. Please forgive any inadvertent

omissions.

GSML staffers Cypress Rudloe, Debbi Clifford and Miranda Manning put it all

together assisted by staffers Doug Gleeson and Victor Spencer. Special congratulations