Latest news with #EckerdCollege
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
FWC marine mammal facility at Eckerd College to get $18M upgrade
The Brief The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's marine mammal facility on Eckerd College's campus is being upgraded. The facility is growing from 2,400 square feet to 10,000 between two buildings. The project is about $18 million, and the funding for the facility comes from the federal Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund started after the BP Oil Spill. The land is from the college ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's marine mammal facility on Eckerd College's campus is getting an upgrade. The backstory Staff at the facility determine how marine animals, like manatees, have died. It's vital to their research but was only built for about 100 manatees per year in 1991. Now, hundreds of manatees and dolphins are brought to the facility. The staff has also grown from three to eight. "We kind of outgrew it and over time, the facility is just kind of not really hitting what we need," Andy Garrett, a research administrator for the FWC, said. READ: Florida could see 'dirty rain' as large Saharan dust plume arrives in Southeast this week Staff at the Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab not only conduct necropsies to determine how the animals died, but they also respond to sick and injured animals from Manatee County north to the Alabama border. What they're saying "We do high-level necropsies to determine why they died that goes to the conservation benefits and conservation action plans. So, the information we get is fed to managers and they use that to maybe make new conservation laws or to understand what's going on with the population out there," Garrett said. "Both [manatees and dolphins] live near humans. There's a human impact on them. We have issues with watercraft interactions. We have issues of entanglements from fishing gear and discarded trash. We have habitat issues. For manatees, sometimes there's seagrass that goes and dies off and manatees will starve to death, or dolphins will have issues, red tide issues also. So, those are all the things we're investigating and the cause of death determinations we get help feed into that understanding," he said. What's next The facility is growing from 2,400 square feet to 10,000 between two buildings. They'll have a bigger hold room for the animals, a conference area for trainings and meetings, bigger offices and an observation area for people training to watch the procedures. They'll also have more parking and space to store all of their equipment. The project is about $18 million, and the funding for the facility comes from the federal Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund started after the BP Oil Spill. The land is from the college. READ:Clearwater cold case: Body identified 31 years after being found floating near Clearwater Pass bridge "We've had a long-standing partnership with Eckerd College. One of their main draws to the college is marine science. Having us as a state facility with marine biology right here on campus is a real benefit to them, so it's been a long-standing partnership and we're real thankful for that," Garrett said. Garrett volunteered at the lab while he attended Eckerd. "It's very exciting for me. I've spent my entire career with FWC. I'm graduating from Eckerd and starting at the lab right after I got my degree. It's real special for me. It's definitely a legacy project for me to be able to take what I got to start out with and make it better with this new facility that will hopefully last another several decades," he said. The project is currently in the permitting stage. Garrett said they hope to break ground next spring. If everything goes according to plan, he said it should take a year or two to build. The Source This story was written with information gathered by FOX 13's Kailey Tracy. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app: Apple | Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter Follow FOX 13 on YouTube
The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Gopher tortoises find new home on Florida coast after astonishing journey to flee hurricane
Dozens of gopher tortoises survived a perilous sea crossing after being swept from their homes during Hurricane Helene last summer, and are enjoying a new lease of life on a remote stretch of Florida coastline. Rangers at Fort de Soto county park near St Petersburg say that before the September storm only eight of the vulnerable species were known to be living there. Now, after their astonishing journey, a count last month confirmed 84 active burrows, suggesting the tortoises quickly adapted to their new habitat after their enforced eviction from Egmont Key national wildlife refuge, a tiny island more than two miles west that was pummeled by the category 4 hurricane. As well as sparking a surge of interest in the park in the form of visitors keen to catch a glimpse of the unexpected new arrivals, the tortoises are also providing benefits for some of the animals that already lived in the 1,100-acre (445-hectare) environment. 'They're a keystone species, which means they share their burrows with other species, and there's been something like 250 different species recorded as living in gopher tortoise burrows,' said Anna Yu, a Fort De Soto ranger who has assumed responsibility for the roving reptiles' wellbeing. 'Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there, and we'll hopefully see an increase in biodiversity in the park. Because we have all these new burrows, other animals are able to use them, like eastern diamondback snakes, black racers, all kinds of different reptiles. 'The last time a gopher frog was listed as being one of the species in the park was in 2016 so it's really cool to think that maybe some of these really imperiled species that rely on gopher tortoise burrows to survive might make their way back. 'I don't expect to see frogs popping up everywhere, but there's certainly more of a chance than before this happened.' Yu and her colleagues knew the tortoises had come across the water from Egmont Key because biologists from St Petersburg's Eckerd College, who were studying them, drilled small holes in their shells as identification markings. Tortoises are poor swimmers, and many would likely have drowned. At least 40 were discovered washed up dead. But the survivors, she said, would have floated and been carried on the surface as Helene's winds whipped the water surging towards the beaches of the mainland. 'The whole event was just sheer luck that they ended up at Fort De Soto and not out at sea, or at some of the other beaches north of St Pete Beach and Treasure Island, really popular beaches that don't have the habitat to support these creatures,' she said. 'It could have turned out a lot differently for them.' Their behaviors since washing ashore have also fascinated observers. Some of the tortoises, presumably traumatized by their hazardous odyssey, burrowed deep into higher elevations. The majority of the burrows, Yu said, were dug beyond Helen's storm surge line. 'It's like they knew exactly where to go, they went a little bit higher in hopes of not being drowned out by another storm. There's a little bit of intelligence there,' she said. Even more exciting are the mating behaviors some of the tortoises have exhibited, suggesting a new generation of gopher tortoises will soon be plodding around. 'It's a sign they're thriving. Being able to mate is a sign of success,' she said. 'The main point in all this is that we want to make sure Fort De Soto is, above all, a wild place and home to an abundance of wildlife that depends on the people that come through, depends on their respect and all of our collective stewardship of their habitat to survive. 'I think this is a really ecologically important event. It's a feel good story too, of course, but it's also very critically important environmentally.'
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Hurricane Helene storm surge relocates dozens of Egmont Key tortoises to Fort De Soto
The Brief Experts say they're monitoring 84 tortoise burrows at Fort De Soto, which is 10 times the number of burrows there before Hurricane Helene. Hurricane Helene's storm surge carried several gopher tortoises miles from Egmont Key to Fort De Soto. Gopher tortoises, their eggs and their burrows are all protected by Florida law, and it's illegal to disturb them. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Visitors to Fort De Soto may notice some new residents. Experts say they're monitoring 84 tortoise burrows at Fort De Soto, which is 10 times the number of burrows there before Hurricane Helene. "Somewhere kind of in that 50 to 100 is a number that I've heard that made their way to Fort De Soto," Jeffrey Goessling, an associate professor of biology at Eckerd College, said. READ:Holmes Beach community continues to rebuild nearly 6 months after hurricanes Big picture view Goessling studies tortoises and said Hurricane Helene's storm surge carried several gopher tortoises miles from Egmont Key to Fort De Soto. "I would suspect they went through a pretty harrowing couple of hours," he said. "We have to assume that the animals that washed over shore were probably in their burrows, and so, this speaks to the real force that this hurricane had, and that if we have an animal three, four, five feet underground, the storm surge was enough to rip that kind of top layer of surface off. And when it did that, again, it's taking with it a bunch of brush debris vegetation, but also kind of taking these animals with it," he said. Follow FOX 13 on YouTube Dig deeper Goessling said they know the tortoises came from Egmont Key, because they bare markings used by researchers to identify Egmont tortoises. He said, unfortunately, some of the tortoises didn't survive the voyage. "Mortality is, unfortunately, part of this kind of historical process of living in coastal areas. Some will survive and be pioneers into a new site," he said. Goessling said they can swim, but don't like to and don't like the water at all, but will inflate their lungs and float. He said a couple of tortoises also washed up on St. Pete Beach two years ago. "This is pretty common to tortoise kind of evolutionary history along the Gulf Coast, is that they are sometimes susceptible to getting picked up by storms and carried distances," Goessling said. MORE: Homeowner refuses to let 2024 hurricanes push him off Bradenton Beach What you can do Gopher tortoises, their eggs and their burrows are all protected by Florida law, and it's illegal to disturb them. You can report a sighting to the Florida Fish and Wildlife on its website. "Any kind of disturbance to the burrow or disturbance to the animal Is not only illegal, but it also just, it could have a real negative impact on these animals," Goessling said. What's next Goessling said he and other local experts already planned this summer to assess how many gopher tortoises are on Egmont Key compared to how many have been relocated by storms, and the most recent storms give them even more of a reason to do that. Gopher tortoise day is April 10. The Source The information in this story was gathered through an interview with Jeffrey Goessling, an associate professor of biology at Eckerd College. WATCH FOX 13 NEWS: STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app:Apple |Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
