Gasparilla
If you are planning on going to Gasparilla this weekend, be sure to stop by the Aquarium’s Charity Beer Tent sometime between 9am and 6pm.  The beer tent will be on Bayshore Blvd and Plant Street (which is by the Davis Island Bridge by Tampa Bank). All monies from beer purchases go to support the aquarium!

Evening Tide Talks
Join us on February 9 as Ron Magill presents on “Sex & Animals: What Happens in the Wild”. Please RSVP by calling 813-273-4568. There is a complimentary reception at 5:45pm and the presentation starts at 6:15pm.

Volunteer Positions

We are looking for volunteers to fill the following Guest Services positions…

Bay Spirit II – Eco Tour Volunteer - Do you have what it takes to tame the high seas?  Then join our 90-minute journey through the bay aboard our brand new boat the Bay Spirit II, our 72-foot powered catamaran.  All hands on deck are needed to assist with passenger boarding, safety instruction and as always the keen eye to help spot the awesome animals that thrive in these local waters. The only requirement is a sense of adventure and safety. If you are interested please contact Brian Shannon – email bshannon@flaquarium.org or call (813) 273-4000 ext. 4034 and he can get you started.

Guest Services Associates to help with Bus Greeting beginning now through the end of the school year. They would like someone Monday – Friday, 9:30-1:00, to help direct the busses where to park and help groups into the Aquarium.  The biggest need is on Friday and then Thursday. Please contact Brian Shannon bshannon@flaquarium.org if you are interested in helping out .

Guest Services associates to help with greeting guests in our lobby, handing out maps, and help greet and direct school groups. This is a Guest interactive position. All days of the week are needed. Please contact Brian Shannon bshannon@flaquarium.org if you can help out.

EAS-Volunteers needed to assist in Explore a Shore, monitoring the children and guests at the ship wreck shore; eel cannons and eel slide areas. This is a Guest interactive position. For more information or to help out, please contact Brian Shannon bshannon@flaquarium.org if you can help out.

More volunteer positions

Track and Time survey – No experience or special training needed. The exhibit team is looking for a few volunteers that can walk through the galleries to “people watch” and take notes of what you see. We ideally are looking to get a minimum of 50 forms for each gallery….see contents below:

Tracking & Timing: Tracking and timing is a well-established method for finding out how visitors use an exhibit space. It provides quantifiable information on where visitors stop and what prompts interest and group interaction. Unlike Q&A surveys, tracking captures unprompted, unbiased responses.

Method: Using one-page map forms, observers track where groups of visitors go and what they do in a particular exhibit gallery. Our goal is a minimum of 50 track & time forms for each gallery. An observer should be able to complete 12 to 15 forms in less than 2 hours. To capture information from a variety of visitor groups, tracking should take place during weekdays, weekends and holidays, in the mornings and afternoons  

This is an opportunity to spend some time in the galleries and help the exhibit team to develop our next project in improving the guest experience. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Casey Melton by email: cmelton@flaquarium.org or contact Polly Perkins by email: pperkins@flaquarium.org or phone (813) 273-4000 ext. 4251.

Perhaps our education volunteers in the galleries may be interested in helping or those that are always wanting to help with the Admin side of the house.  

Donations

Cleaning out the closets? If you have any old towels, sheets, blankets and jeans that you are looking to replace or no longer want, we could use them for the sea turtles and the other animals. You can drop them in the box the volunteer lounge or take them to the Husbandry department in Area D. Your contribution is well appreciated.

We are also collecting any DVD’s, CD’s and books that you may want to donate for a book sale for the Animal Enrichment Fund. You can leave the DVD’s, Books and CD’s with Casey Melton in the volunteer office.

Cold Weather Attire

I know its cold outside…..which is great for us because we are one of the few attractions that offers a refuge from the cold for our visitors.  So, we’re making front gate money (hooray) and attendance is up! Now for the bad news…unfortunately you cannot wear your favorite sports sweatshirt or jackets from home.  We do have cold weather attire (sweatshirts) and we’re okay if you wear a turtleneck or something that matches the uniform colors underneath. We do offer uniform sweatshirts for sale at $15.00. 

New Restaurant

A New Greek restaurant has opened in Channelside. Taverno Opa is offering Aquarium employees and volunteers a 10% discount.  They are open for lunch and dinner.  It’s located below where Margarita mama’s used to be.

Volunteer Recognition Party

Be sure to mark your calendar for the annual volunteer recognition party to be held at EAS on April 17 starting at 6pm. This is a fun event held for you as an appreciation and thank you for all you volunteers do. I am working on getting some great door prizes again this year and the dinner will be cooked up by Angie and her great kitchen team. More details will follow in the next month.

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Coral Reef Treatment Procedures

We have made some changes to our planned treatment of the coral reef tank.  There are some “bugs” in there that we have been trying to eradicate and they have been quite resilient to our previous treatment regimes.  We are moving onto a different treatment which has proven effective in a number of other institutions.

Starting today, we will be lowering the salinity in the tank by replacing water lost due to backwashing the filters with fresh water.  It will take up to two weeks to get the salt levels to the point where the “bug” will be killed off.  This should not cause any undue stress on any of the fishes in the exhibit.  We will, of course, be monitoring all of them carefully just in case.  We will then keep the salinity in this exhibit at this treatment level for a minimum of 45 days and then slowly return back to normal with our normal backwashing procedures.

There are also two advantages of this treatment over the introduction of drugs to the water.  Firstly, we can continue running all of the filtration as normal so we should not see any degradation of water quality during this period.  Secondly, it will not impact any of the diving operations, including public interactive ones such as “swim with the fishes”.  Ideally, no one will even notice that a treatment is being done.

To schedule a dive email Diveschedule@flaquarium.org or call (813) 367-4019. See you in the water!

Dive Trip - Fiji Islands
Tina Lewis is offering an experience of a lifetime to dive the paradise waters of Fiji. If you are seriously interested in joining her on this adventure, please contact Tina – email: tinadiver@juno.com or 727-522-0308 for details. The deadline to get your monies in is February 13.

TEAM LEADERS

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