WaterNotes

Its been a rough few weeks in Florida wildlife conservation circles, particularly with our lovely sea cows, so lets take a moment today to share some positive things. The Monterey Bay Aquarium recently rescued a sea otter pup and brought her in to live with another resident otter. Daily Mail shares a number of ridiculously [...]

One of the truly wonderful things about environmental education in Florida is that it includes a large network of centers, zoos, aquariums, and museums,  with a relatively small community of colleagues. Thanks to organizations like the League of Environmental Educators of Florida and the Florida Marine Science Educators Association I’ve been able to build and [...]

The annual synoptic aerial survey for manatees in state of Florida waters came in officially yesterday with a whopping all-time high count of the cows: 5,067!! This  is a staggering (and exciting) jump in population numbers from last year’s all-time high by over 1,200 individuals. While the survey will not be finalized (and thus truly [...]

Cold stun sea turtles continue to dominate the conservation news here in Florida. Many zoos, aquariums, and wildlife centers – even Disney’s Animal Kingdom – are assisting with warming up stunned turtles prior to their eventual release.  Many of the smaller centers and nonprofit institutions are keeping up admirably with the enormous demand of their [...]

I was probably a manatee in a past life. How do I know?  I won’t SCUBA dive into anything other than warm sauna-like conditions and I eat a lot of salads.  Ok, perhaps this isn’t the most convincing of arguments, but these marine mammals are my favorite in the world, as regular WaterNotes readers well [...]

I’m not sure how I missed out on this great video, but watch above as SeaWorld Orlando and the Loggerhead Marinelife Center team up to release hatchling loggerheads given a second chance at survival after being picked up by park rangers at the Canaveral National Seashore following their wash-in due to tremendous storm surges from [...]

Clearwater Marine Aquarium‘s rescued superstar bottlenose dolphin Winter now has her own children’s book. Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again launched today, written by the Hatkoff’s who brought us the adorable Owen & Mzee story I’ve used in several zoo classroom environments. Winter was brought in by Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute and [...]