Florida field station ‘fills a gap’

When Georgia Aquarium founder Bernie Marcus opened the downtown Atlanta attraction in late 2005, he touted that it would wow visitors but also pledged that it would become a major player in animal conservation and research. Everyone heard the first part, not so much the second.

“I think a lot of people thought it was us just speaking, but we’re serious,” Marcus said Tuesday from just outside St. Augustine, Fla., where he cut the ceremonial ribbon on the Georgia Aquarium’s Dolphin Conservation Field Station.

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Marineland

In addition to dolphins like those above, the new field station expects to rescue whales, manatees and sea turtles. Staffers also will perform necropsies.

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The $1.5 million operation, just across from the Marineland oceanarium, includes research and veterinary facilities, quarantine pools where animals rescued along the Georgia and northeast Florida coasts can begin rehabilitation, land and water animal rescue vehicles, and housing for researchers. Marcus is contributing another $1.5 million for operations.

Dolphins cast a whale-sized shadow in Marcus’ world right now. As the Florida field station opens, concrete pools are starting to take shape in downtown Atlanta, the first clear sign of a $110 million dolphin-driven expansion scheduled to open in November 2010.

Marcus says the field station and Atlantic bottlenose dolphin exhibit go “arm in arm in terms of what the Georgia Aquarium is all about — educate and entertain, research and rehabilitation.”

The rehabilitation part comes none too soon, says Blair Mase-Guthrie, Southeast stranding network coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has a well-established network along the Southeast coast to save stranded animals, she says no facility has the equipment and staffing of the new field station.

“This is filling a gap,” Mase-Guthrie says. “We’ve been in a position where the response times have not been as they should have, and we’ve then had to transport the animals across the state for care.”

The field station also expects to help rescue whales, manatees and sea turtles. Staffers also will perform necropsies.

Billy Hurley, the aquarium’s chief animal officer, says live strandings “happen in waves” — some months, none; others, four or five. “You have to be ready 24 hours a day.”

After rehabilitation, animals deemed releasable by the NMFS will be reintroduced into their natural habitats. The NMFS will designate new homes for those not ready for release.

Jim Jacoby, Marineland owner and a member of the Georgia Aquarium board, has committed to loaning four bottlenose dolphins to the Atlanta attraction, which will be able to house up to 20. Other loans are being negotiated.

Aquarium researchers and University of Georgia veterinary students will get the opportunity to work at the Florida field station.

“Remarkable efforts at this kind of research have been taking place,” Hurley says, “but the ocean is a big place, and we need a lot more of it.”