Cindy Lewis from Keys Marine Laboratory joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the lab.
Keys Marine Lab is associated and operated by the Florida Institute of Oceanography, and is the southernmost campus of the University of South Florida.
The lab is having an open house on March 7.
Lewis said, “So normally, we have about 150 groups that come through KML every year. That translates to about 800 researchers and students. But our annual Open House is an opportunity for the public to come through, and they can walk around, and we’ve invited many of our restoration and conservation partners to join us, and they’ll have booths and exhibits set up so that you can interact with them and see all the fabulous work that they’re doing here in the Florida Keys as partnering with us, some of the work is even done out of keys Marine Lab. There will be demos on site, lots of people to talk to, walk around, see our sea water systems and see what goes on there. Doors open at one o’clock and go till three. So two hours to walk around, talk to everybody. We usually have between 200 and 300 people on site in the course of the afternoon.”
The lab has had some renovations and construction going on, too.
Lewis said, “We’re building our fourth seawater system. So we have a series of temperature controlled seawater systems for our researchers to use, for our education groups to use, but probably most importantly, in recent years, our coral restoration partners, and believe it or not, with this cold weather that we’ve had for the last several weeks, there’s been concern about the corals out on the reef being too cold. First, in the summer, they’ve been too hot. Now they’re worried about them being too cold, and even the corals that we have on site trying to keep those water temperatures above 70 degrees in the tanks when the wind chill is 46, that can be a problem. But our heaters are working wonderfully, and the corals are snuggly warm.”
The research conducted at the lab is then shared with other entities and organizations that actually put it into practical use.
Lewis said, “Keys Marine Lab really just provides the infrastructure for everybody else to do their research and have their education opportunities. So we at the moment, do not do any in house research of our own, but all of our research and restoration partners can do their work and then share that with resource managers and the scientific community.”
There are vessels that are used by the lab to take groups out on the ocean.
Lewis said, “We’ve got four ranging from our 30 foot Island Hopper, we can take 22 snorkelers out to the reef with our two experienced captains. We have two 25 Parkers and an 18 Parker. So those tend to be more of our research vessels to get our divers and research groups and smaller groups out to the reef.”
The lab also does research in the Everglades.
Lewis said, “The Everglades is literally a mile behind the lab. We have easy access to the Everglades in Florida Bay and then right under the bridge and around the corner, and we’re out on the ocean side, so we have access to both very easily from the lab.
For more information, click here: https://www.fio.usf.edu/keys-marine-lab/