Florida has almost 1,200 miles of coastline and is home to several unique ocean ecosystems. Our family regularly visits the beach and fish along the local piers. For us, the ocean is our favorite place to spend our weekends! I was so excited to see that Loggerhead Marinelife Center was hosting a Marine Life Day last week.
The Marine Life Day is hosted by Loggerhead Marinelife Center to help promote ocean conservation and awareness to fragile marine life, such as the sea turtle. The event was open to all ages and hosted art, shopping, interactive exhibits, and even a Junior Veterinary Lab!
Ocean Conservation Activities
The main mission for Loggerhead is to protect endangered sea turtles and promote conservation of the ocean. The activities at the event centered around the dangers of plastics in the ocean and what can happen if a sea turtle ingest some. At one exhibit the volunteers had the kids identify how long some common household items took to decompose. Another exhibit was an imitation of a beach clean-up, and showed just how much plastic comes off the beach.
Junior Veterinarian Lab
The most popular part of the exhibit was the Junior Veterinarian Lab. At this exhibit kids had the opportunity to save a sea turtle. This lab is designed for each child to asses the injuries on a particular sea turtle. Each junior vet works with an assistant to measure, weigh, and asses the sea turtle. Once a diagnosis is made on the health of the turtle it can receive medicine and be released back to the “ocean”!
Overall, we loved visiting and getting to know many of the volunteers at the Marinelife Day! When we left my sons kept talking about how they wanted to adopt a sea turtle to save it!
