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The WFSU Ecology Blog

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Oyster Reef Ecology | On the ReefSalt Marsh Ecology | In the GrassWildlife in North Florida- Critters Big and Small

Video: Turtles, Octopus, & Crabs at the Gulf Specimen Lab

by Rob Diaz de Villegas December 5, 2013
by Rob Diaz de Villegas December 5, 2013 0 comment

Video: Critters galore at the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea

Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV
Jack Rudloe feeding Nurse Sharks at Gulf Specimen Marine Lab

Gulf Specimen Marine Lab founder Jack Rudloe feeding nurse sharks.

If there’s one thing we have learned in 3-plus years of doing this project, it’s that everything eats blue crabs.  If you’ve watched our videos over the years, you’ve seen a gull eating one on Saint George Island.  You’ve seen (and heard) a loggerhead turtle crunch into one.  And in the video above, two octopi wrestle for the tasty treat at the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea, Florida (That turtle shot was taken there as well, a few months back).  Lab founder Jack Rudloe spent some time with us, feeding sharks, hermit crabs, and various fish species.  It gave us a great chance to see many of the species that we cover in this blog, and many that we don’t, in action.

In the 50 years since Rudloe founded Gulf Specimen, the facility has served an eclectic range of services.

Its aquarium features many of the small critters that we’ve chronicled Randall and David studying in Alligator Harbor, Saint Joseph Bay, or Wakulla Beach.  You won’t see any orcas doing backflips for a fish treat.  These are the creatures of our coasts, many of them common (like fiddler crabs), some of them rare (like a white blue crab).  If it’s safe to touch the animals, you can (consult the signs on the tanks).

Loggerhead at Gulf Specimen Marine LabFor almost as long as its been open, Gulf Specimen has run a Sea Turtle Program to rehabilitate injured loggerhead and Kemp’s Ridley turtles.  They release 15-20 a year, many of which have swallowed fishing hooks.  The turtle in the aforementioned video is Allie the Loggerhead, released after a year in their care (full story here).  The loggerhead that tries to eat our GoPro camera in the video above is Little Girl, who is on display right now.

And then there’s the reason the lab was originally created, to provide specimens of animals to researchers, both medical and academic.  This keeps animals coming in and going out, so that the critter lineup remains somewhat fluid.

In their outreach in education initiatives, their goals mirror our own on the In the Grass, On the Reef project, only in a more up close and tactile manner.  They want you to know about the critters and their habitats, the threats facing them, and the benefits they provide us.  With their Seamobile, they can take that mission (and the critters) on the road to events like the St. Marks Stone Crab Festival.  After people crack open their claws, they could go and learn about the world their food had inhabited.  After the last year we have learned that this food only gets on your plate when there is a balance between these animals and their environmental conditions.  Sometimes, that balance is off, whether it is an overabundance of oyster drills in Apalachicola or, as we see in the video, octopus in crab traps.  It’s one thing to hear that crabs are being eaten.  It really comes alive, though, when you see it happening.  That’s mission we share with the Gulf Specimen Lab.

Over the next few months, we’ll be seeking out others who work to bring the big, wild, messy outdoors to you.  Is there anyone that you think we should be talking to? Let us know!

What is that octopus hiding under its tentacles?

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Rob Diaz de Villegas

Rob Diaz de Villegas is a senior producer for WFSU-TV, covering outdoors and ecology. After years of producing the music program OutLoud, Rob found himself in a salt marsh with a camera, and found a new professional calling as well. That project, the National Science Foundation funded "In the Grass, On the Reef," spawned the award winning WFSU Ecology Blog. Now in its tenth year, the Ecology Blog recently wrapped its most ambitious endeavor, the EcoCitizen Project. Rob is married with two young sons, who make a pretty fantastic adventure squad.

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iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

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