Loggerhead Marinelife Center facts for kids
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| Established | 1983 |
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| Location | 14200 U.S Highway 1 Juno Beach, Florida |
| Type | Wildlife rehabilitation center |
The Loggerhead Marinelife Center is a special place in Juno Beach, Florida. It's where people study, help, teach about, and protect sea turtles. The center also looks after the Juno Beach fishing pier, which is right across the street. Started in 1983, the center works to keep our oceans healthy, especially for sea turtles that are in danger. At the center, you'll find a hospital for sea turtles, a lab where scientists do research, and exhibits with live sea turtles and other amazing ocean animals.
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Protecting Ocean Life
The Loggerhead Marinelife Center works hard to protect our oceans and the animals living in them. They focus a lot on sea turtles, which are very important to ocean health.
Helping Hooked Turtles
Since 2014, the center has teamed up with other groups to save turtles that accidentally get hooked by fishing lines. This often happens near fishing piers. They learned that many problems facing sea turtles are bigger than just getting hooked.
Project SHIELD
One big program is called Project SHIELD. This program helps many different groups protect the ocean, including:
- People who manage fishing piers
- Boaters who enjoy the ocean
- Hotels near the beach
- Companies that offer snorkel and SCUBA trips
- Fishing charter companies
- Places where people access the beach
Project SHIELD also works on stopping pollution. Some of their important efforts include:
- Making sure people act in ways that help the environment.
- Working to ban balloons from beaches, because they can harm animals.
- Collecting and recycling fishing line to keep it out of the ocean.
- Running the Responsible Pier Initiative, which teaches safe fishing.
- Working to get rid of trash in the oceans.
The center's conservation work has spread far and wide. They have helped in Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Greece, Turkey, and Puerto Rico.
Fun Programs and Activities
The Loggerhead Marinelife Center offers many exciting programs and events for visitors of all ages. You can learn a lot about sea turtles and ocean life!
Some of the activities they host include:
- Astronomy nights, where you can look at the stars.
- Guided walks on the beach.
- Special programs for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
- Eco Tours (SWIM) to explore nature.
- Evening turtle walks to see nesting turtles (in season).
- Hatchling releases, where baby turtles go to the ocean.
- A marine summer camp program.
- Sea turtle releases, when healed turtles return home.
- Water quality monitoring to check how clean the water is.
- Beach cleanups to remove trash.
The Juno Beach Pier
The Loggerhead Marinelife Center manages the Juno Beach Pier. This pier is 900 feet long and is a popular spot for fishing in Juno Beach, Florida. The pier is part of the Responsible Pier Initiative, which teaches people how to fish safely and protect marine life.
The town of Juno Beach opened the pier in 1999 for people to walk on. The Loggerhead Marinelife Center offers special activities on the pier, such as:
- A fishing program just for kids.
- Field trips for schools and groups.
- Private fishing lessons.
