The Other Day in Florida I took a road trip up through the Nature Coast to the Big Bend region. I left my watch at home. As the miles of my journey fell behind me in my wake, my mind opened up memories and recollections that made the trip all the sweeter.
When I was 18 years old, recently graduated from high school and moved to Tampa from my family home along the southern Nature Coast, I was ready to embrace and explore the big and engaging world.
The thinking, advocacy and nature writing of western writers like Edward Abbey, John Muir, Rick Bass, and Dave Foreman had captured my heart and mind, but try as I could, I could only embrace their work from afar as I was a child of the Gulf Coast.
I had never seen the Sierra Nevadas, vast western deserts, Montana, or other magical places I visited in my mind through their writing. I was a child of coastal marshes, spring-fed and tannin filled rivers and Gulf landscapes. I was seeking inspiration closer to home.
Then I read a book by Jack Rudloe.
“The Wilderness Coast” was beautifully written by Rudloe, and it altered the course of my life. It was rich and full of cordgrass, seagrass beds, mosquitoes, cypress trees and brackish waters. In his writing, I found a place and a voice. Rudloe produced some of the best books I have ever read.
He also established one of my favorite places, year after year, to explore the wonders of the Gulf of Mexico. I visited there last week and fell in love with the Gulf Specimens Aquarium (GSA) again. It felt good to remember why I love marine science and the Gulf of Mexico.
When they were younger, my kids always loved any place where they could interact with wildlife and animals. The connection established, however fleeting, always brought them great joy.
The more odd, rare, unique, mysterious, or eclectic the animal, the better. They always loved the GSA in Panacea, Florida, and still do. The GSA inspires children and adults.
Indeed, generations of children along the Gulf Coast have nourished a sense of wonder there, and its engagement of the public and younger children with the world around them is inspiring. The creatures of a realm usually below the water’s surface are right there to see and sometimes touch.
Founded in 1963, it has thrilled and educated children and adults from all over the world for generations. Located in Florida’s Big Bend region—or as co-founder Jack Rudloe might describe it, Florida’s Wilderness Coast—GSA brings the Gulf and its odd and mysterious creatures to you.
Famed naturalists, biologists and writers Jack and Anne Rudloe brought this facility to life, nourished it, grew it and shaped it into the educational and research facility that it is today. Both are legends in the marine science and conservation communities in Florida.
GSA contains thousands of marine species, many of which are in kid-friendly touch tanks. All of them are accessible and close. The theme of every aspect of the facility promotes education, conservation, appreciation and connection.
GSA is hands-on, tactile and as close as you can get without a boat, a wetsuit or S.C.U.B.A. gear to the heart of the Gulf. And while it is located just a block or two from the Gulf, it transports guests into both the shallow benthic waters of the Gulf and the deep, open pelagic waters of the Gulf.
It takes you to places few of us ever get to go.
The legacy of the Rudloe Family (their son, Cypress Rudloe, is the current GSA Executive Director) is found in the mission statement of the GSA. “Gulf Specimen Aquarium’s mission is to further through study, research, publication, teaching and public display the knowledge of marine biology; to promote protection of marine life and the marine environment; to collect, classify and disseminate marine biological specimens.”
GSA captures the connection between education and action. If you want current and future generations to understand and protect the Gulf, you need to share its wonders with them and engage them in its conservation.
When I visited the area around GSA, I also spent part of the day at Wakulla Springs State Park and in the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. I bought some amazing and local Tupelo Honey from a roadside stand. It was a sublime day of all things natural, and I hope to return soon!
GSA is in the Florida Big Bend, Gulf coastal community of Panacea, Florida. For more information, please call (850) 984-5297 or visit their website: https://gulfspecimen.org/
Take a virtual tour of the GSA: https://gulfspecimen.org/aerial-flyover/
Joe Murphy is a former Healthy Gulf staff person and board member. He lives along the Nature Coast of Florida. He submits these blog posts as an alumnus and supporter of Healthy Gulf. You can follow Joe on Facebook at: https://bit.ly/joemurphyfacebook
Note – I am launching a series of stories, trips, excursions, and adventures as part of my “The Other Day in Florida” project. I am making the midlife, mid-course correction of transitioning to nature and place-based writing as both a vocation and avocation. I like telling stories. I like writing. And I like exploring. So, here we go!