A Leader in Rescue and Research: The Florida Aquarium

The Florida Aquarium is a non-profit organization located in Tampa. They strive to help restore our blue planet through conservation initiatives. Through outreach, education, conservation efforts and critical research they also aim to entertain, educate and inspire the stewardship of the environment. They prioritize four major aspects of conservation: animal health, welfare and sustainable populations, habitat restoration, reduction of single-use plastics entering waterways, and sustainable business. Currently the Florida Aquarium is leading two large scale conservation programs focusing on two different groups of animals: corals and sea turtles. 

Their Coral Conservation Program focuses on protecting species that are approaching or are at risk of extinction in the wild, increasing coral reproduction rates, advancing coral health, and restoring Florida reefs. They have been able to increase the genetic diversity of coral offspring, conduct vital health research to improve coral care and husbandry techniques, and have increased coral propagation rates. Read this article to learn even more about The Florida Aquarium’s advancements in coral restoration.

The Florida Aquarium has led extensive sea turtle rehabilitation efforts, community and visitor education, and conservation programs to aid in sea turtle protection for over 20 years! During this time they have received 200 sea turtles. Due to the severity of some of the turtles' injuries not all were releasable, however 180 of them were successfully released! You can watch a video of them releasing 10 of these turtles back into the wild! 

They recently built a state-of-the-art Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center to better conduct their research and conservation efforts. Here, they are able to use a special deep-dive tank to test foraging-readiness in the turtles before they are released. They are also currently conducting a study looking at how microplastics are impacting sea turtles currently at the aquarium. They also place satellite tags on their released turtles to gain information about diving, feeding, migratory and activity patterns. This data can then be compared to environmental data such as water temperature to learn more about their behavior and how they are affected by environmental variables. You can even track one of the aquarium's rehabilitated and released turtles. As the aquarium continues to make advancements in this program they are able to respond to, rescue, and rehabilitate even more turtles! 

Check out the aquarium's website to learn even more about their conservation efforts!