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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