Engaging the next generation in conservation: Florida’s Gulf Specimen Aquarium

When I was 18 years old, recently graduated from high school and moving to Tampa from my family home in Brooksville, Florida, on the southern Nature Coast, I was ready to embrace and explore the world. The thinking and advocacy of Edward Abbey, John Muir, Rick Bass, and Dave Foreman had captured my heart and mind, but try as I could, I could only embrace their work from afar as I was a child of the Gulf Coast. I was a child of coastal marshes, spring-fed and tannin field rivers and Gulf landscapes. Then I read a book by Jack Rudloe.

The Wilderness Coast, written by Rudloe, altered the course of my life. It was rich and full of cordgrass, seagrass beds, mosquitoes, cypress trees and brackish waters. In his writing, I found a place and a voice. Rudloe produced some of the best books I have ever read. He also established one of my favorite places, year after year, to explore the wonders of the Gulf.

When they were younger, my kids always loved any place where they could interact with wildlife and animals. The connection established, however fleeting, always brought them great joy. The more odd, rare, unique, mysterious, or eclectic the animal, the better. They always loved the Gulf Specimen Aquarium (GSA) in Panacea, Florida, and still do.

The Gulf Specimen Aquarium inspires children

Indeed, generations of children of the Gulf Coast have nourished a sense of wonder there, and its engagement of the public and younger children with the world around them is a framework that NWF, as well as the Gulf Program, can and does replicate.

Founded in 1963, it has thrilled and educated children and adults from all over the world for generations. Located in Florida’s Big Bend region—or as co-founder Rudloe might describe it, Florida’s Wilderness Coast—GSA brings the Gulf and its odd and mysterious creatures to you.

Famed naturalists, biologists and writers Jack and Anne Rudloe brought this facility to life, nourished it, grew it and shaped it into the educational and research facility that it is today. Both are legends in the marine science and conservation communities in Florida.

GSA contains thousands of marine species, many of which are in kid-friendly touch tanks. All of them are accessible and close. The theme of every aspect of the facility promotes education, conservation, appreciation and connection.

GSA is hands-on, tactile and as close as you can get without a boat, a wetsuit or S.C.U.B.A. gear to the heart of the Gulf. And while it is located just a block or two from the Gulf, it transports guests into both the shallow benthic waters of the Gulf and the deep, open pelagic waters of the Gulf. It takes you to places few of us ever get to go.

The legacy of the Rudloe Family (their son, Cypress Rudloe, is the current GSA Executive Director) is found in the mission statement of the GSA. “Gulf Specimen Aquarium’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.”

GSA captures the connection between education and action. If you want current and future generations to understand and protect the Gulf, you need to share its wonders with them and engage them in its conservation.

Connected in conservation

NWF’s Gulf Program and regional/national efforts to educate communities about nature flow from this same idea. Whether through our “Dear Tampa Bay” video and boat project, development of sea turtle lighting ordinances or a manatee sighting network, the message is the same: connect them, and it will sustain them. In turn, they will sustain the natural world.

So, take in a day at nearby Wakulla Springs State Park, grab lunch in Apalachicola or enjoy a walk on the beach at St. George Island State Park… and then make sure, whether child or adult, to visit and explore GSA. The connection to the Gulf you feel will nourish your mind and soul well into the future.

GSA is in the Florida Big Bend, Gulf coastal community of Panacea, Florida.  For more information, please call (850)984-5297 or visit their website. Take a virtual tour of the GSA here.

Joe Murphy is a former Wildlife Policy Specialist for NWF’s Gulf Program and contributes blog posts to NWF as a supporter and alumnus.