Turning the tide: Nonprofit group brings Tampa Bay back from dead

TAMPA, Florida — While you soak up the fantastic thing about Tampa Bay as we speak, it is arduous to imagine that a number of a long time in the past, the beloved physique of water was declared lifeless, a poster youngster of the results of unbridled air pollution.

That was within the Seventies. At this time, it is experiencing a outstanding comeback due to the efforts of Tampa Bay Watch, established to resurrect the “lifeless bay.”

This nonprofit environmental group’s mission is to guard native marine life and maintain air pollution ranges down.

And now, you’ll be able to see their work — and expertise the fruits of their labor — first hand by visiting the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Middle.

CEO Dwayne Virgint describes the progress the group has remodeled the previous 29 years.

“With a variety of help from the group, we have helped ‘flip the tide’ actually, so we’re beginning to see nice enchancment right here at Tampa Bay. We’re seeing seagrass come again, and we’re seeing marine life come again to ranges again in direction of the Fifties,” he mentioned.

The bay is definitely an estuary, which suggests it is a nursery floor for the Gulf of Mexico.

Savannah Gandee, a marine biologist and Tampa Bay Watch’s lead environmental educator, mentioned the bay cradles breathtaking biodiversity.

“There’s simply in all probability over 200 animals that might stay above and under the water’s floor,” she mentioned.

Inside the middle, the middle affords many displays to discover, together with a contact tank the place you will get a real closeup look and bodily deal with horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, whelks and ghost shrimp. Within the habitat tanks, you will discover a wide range of species, however the crowd favourite tends to be the terrapins, that are native to the estuary.

To expertise the bay, guests can sail out on a 47-foot catamaran for an academic eco-tour, the place they will uncover the totally different species that stay above and under the water’s floor.

The excursions often come throughout dolphins and manatees, and have a program the place they establish and research the dolphins as a result of they’re so localized to the inshore waters of Florida.

“We would like them to depart with a greater sense of Tampa Bay and the estuary and what they will take dwelling to allow them to turn into stewards of their native environments,” Virgint mentioned.