Happy Birthday to our volunteers whose Birthdays are in June…
George Baraket, Sam Rosania, Emily Parisy, Betty Rose Mentzer, Warren Hogg, Ilsia Szczepanski, Larry Ivey, Nicole Hutton, John Morris, Tom Connors, Becki Orze, Bekah Crockett, Sandi Thomas, Tom Lenfestey, June Alber-Bieniek, Jess Caggiano.
Congratulations to the following volunteers for reaching a new milestone
2000+ Hours - Pete Kincaid
2500+ Hours - Pat Hare, Peggy Morris, George Brown
3000+ Hours – Jeri Carford
3750+ Hours – Lillian Kenney
4000+ Hours – Dan Rosenthal
Husbandry Openings…
These positions are open to all active volunteers that are interested in helping in Husbandry. You may volunteer in husbandry while volunteering in other departments.
Horticulture volunteer – if you are an early riser and looking for something to do before school, work or take the kids to the beach, we need help with watering on Mondays and Fridays from 6 to 8 am. Due to watering restrictions, it is important to be finished by 8am.
Bird Diet positions’ open on the following days Sunday, Monday, Tuesday & Thursday from 2-4:30pm to make diets and clean out the pans. Individuals must be dedicated and dependable. You will be feeding out the afternoon diets, making diets and cleaning pans. This is a great opportunity to observe the birds in the Wetlands gallery.
If you’re interested in these openings, please complete a Husbandry Application in the lounge, and submit it to Volunteer Services. Don’t forget, you must write down the specific title and date of the position you’re applying for
More Volunteer Openings…
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 .
Green Team news
If you are interested in helping on the Green Team or would like information and updates – please contact Jim Igler email: jigler@flaquarium.org. Jim will advise you on the monthly meetings, general and future projects that are in the works
Animal needs
Husbandry is in need of old towels. If you have any at home you no longer use please bring them in and set them on Amy’s desk in Husbandry. They use them for sea turtles, otters, birds, and wetlands opening. They could also use old sheets and blankets for the animals. If you can’t find Amy’s desk – leave them in the volunteer lounge and we will get them to the husbandry department.
More News
Cantina Open-
Please note that beginning this Friday, (6/5/09); the Cantina Bar and full service dinning area will be open seven-days-a-week.
Turtle nest
The soft shell turtle nest out side, the one surrounded with caution tape should be hatching this month. It has been 58 days today since mother turtle had such a traumatic afternoon that Thursday just trying to lay her eggs. All research says 2 to 3 months for incubation. So keep your eyes open maybe we can catch a glimpse of them hatching. Just a side note, she was also seen 3 weeks later on April 29 just a few feet away from current nest laying eggs again. This one is not marked because she was left alone and was successful at doing her job without human interference
Membership Manager
I am delighted to report that Danna Klemmer has joined the marketing team as Manager of Membership, effective today. Danna was an outstanding member of the Aquarium family in the Development area and as such brings back to us an understanding of Memberships role in the Development cycle and a strong desire to improve our revenues in this critical area. And she knows this joint. No learning curve. How cool is that.
Summer”, along with the accompanying up tic with to-dos here in Dive World is fast approaching so lets not be dilly-dallying, in here……… and welcome to the June version of the much anticipated (so I’m told) teepee paper. :=)
Monday, June 8 th the Aquarium hosted our first OFFICIAL observation of World Ocean’s Day which we hope to make “our own”. We’ve altered the dive program to reflect the mission of Going Green to help Save the Blue and will be hosting various programs throughout the day to increase the awareness of how re-cycling can ultimately affect the water world we represent. Please, as you go about you day here at the Aquarium, as well as at home, take the time to remember the three RRR”s ,…. reduce, re-use and re-cycle. We need to setting an example and leading the way in how we conduct ourselves.
This past month saw a successful completion to the two latest excursions off site, from efforts at Little Salt Spring…………..our divers successfully accomplished the planned tasks with the U. of Miami, including mapping and getting some groundwork laid for future efforts. We also did more work on both the Narcissus as well as Shakes wreck., both located near Egmont Key in the mouth of the Bay. Due to improved exposure on Shakes, proposed dives in the Hillsborough River were cancelled so as to allot more time for Shakes. Remember…for those you sitting here wondering….gee! I wonder if I can help?, ….yep, you can. Pay attention to when the courses are offered to become a Scientific diver, show a willingness to be an active algae eater….oops, scrubber and you’ll soon find your able to say “put my name on the diver list for that project.
Happy Shark Tooth , oops!! I mean Father’s day, ….once again we’ll journey to Venice Beach on Sunday morning, June 20 for another attempt to garner the elusive megaladon tooth, for those of that may not be up to speed….. that’s a really, really realllllly old sharks tooth, hopefully of suitable size so friends will say, “WOW”, look at the size of that one. In the mean time, we’re planning on meeting at Venice Beach so as to splash around 9ish, it’s a shore dive, so we normally make our way out to the 18’ depth and start looking in the bottom sand. It’s a popular day for us, so plan on joining in. It’s a fun outing, so holler if you have questions.
We’ll be checking out a sizeable group of new vols at Bill Jacksons the middle of the month followed by orientation dives here so if you see some new faces, PLEASE…..don’t be afraid to introduce yourself and make them welcome……..lets do that in any event. We’re a small group of people endeavoring to do the same thing, so make the effort to become better acquainted with your fellow divers when the opportunity presents itself.
We’ve still got the possibility of continuing our clean-ups with Ocean Conservancy, so stay tuned for the details to be posted. Again….we ask out SD rated people first. Our way of offering outside dives as a way of saying thanks for your efforts inside the building.
We”re also in the process of changing some programs/equipment to help move the dive program forward here as some of you long (notice…..I didn”t use the term “OLD” ) time divers can attest to. We”re continually striving to up-date, improve and make the dive program here as interesting, exciting and rewarding as we can for all involved.
As always….to best accomplish that on your part….help us where you can and want to, be aware of what being a good diver involves and practice those traits actively….we have all sorts of people watching us so we need to be good representatives of the diving world and the Florida Aquarium………good buoyancy, proper techniques, and the next time you drag a gauge down the steps….you will get yelled at!!!
Lots of cool things on the agenda for the coming months gang so stay tuned, and remember the Green Teams new slogan GO GREEN to SAVE the BLUE.
Reminder to all...
We will be stating our GDE Summer Expansion on Monday June 8th. Along with the normal Dive interpretive programs, we will be adding Swim with the Fish and Dive with the Sharks programs daily. Below is the daily Dive schedule throughtout the Summer...
Coral Reef
11:00 Coral Reef Dive Interpretive Program
11:30 Swim with the Fish
2:00 Coral Reef Dive Interpretive Program
2:30 Swim with the Fish
4:00 Swim with the Fish
Shark Bay
10:00 Dive with the Sharks
12:00 Shark Bay Dive Interpretive Program
3:00 Shark Bay Dive Interpretive Program (except Sundays)
4:00 Dive with the Sharks
For those of you who dive... Remember that we cannot be in the locker room with any guest under the age of 18.
For those that feed the Reef and Shark Bay, please remember the Strict no diving for 30 minutes after feeding policy. Please make sure that feedings of any animals ends a half hour before dives start. Dive with the sharks guests splash approximately 40 minutes after the beginning of the program. Swim with the Fish Guests splash about 15 minutes after start time.
To schedule a dive email Diveschedule@flaquarium.org or call (813) 367-4019. See you in the water!
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