Chehaw, Flint Riverquarium honor oceans

ALBANY — While visitors to the zoo at Chehaw Park could still find critters that could move around on four legs or slither over ground, the spotlight Saturday fell squarely on the world beneath the sea.

To help support World Oceans Day, Chehaw offered up the opportunity to learn about the importance of our oceans, how we can help maintain their health and even reach right out and touch those salty swimmers. Through reciprocal agreements, the park provided a one-day hands-on visit with the “Seamobile,” a rolling sea museum from the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea, Fla., plus an educational display from the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island. Educational staff members from the Flint RiverQuarium were there as well.

June 8 was declared World Oceans Day by the United Nations in 2008 and is coordinated by The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network.

“This is kind of a unique thing for Albany,” said Doug Porter, executive director of Chehaw Park. “I think Albany has a good tie to this because so many people here go down to the gulf coast. Today you can see it first hand.”

It was the second year Chehaw had made arrangements to exchange wildlife educational programs with other institutions to recognize World Oceans Day, Porter said.

According to Cypress Rudloe, executive director of the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab, a biological supply and environmental education center, about three years ago officials at the lab took on the task of building a vehicle which could deliver living sea creatures and ocean education to schools throughout the region.

“We included ‘touch tanks’ so the kids can get up close and handle the animals,” Rudloe said. “I’m not into walling off the fish, because it keeps you separate from them. These animals are used to being picked up. We know which ones to use and which ones we can’t.”

Rudloe said that part of the importance of providing information is to educate people how inland habits can affect the water systems.

“We’re having watershed problems from all the farm fills and such,” Rudloe said. “Farming feeds our country, but at the same time, people should be educated why they should use a bare minimum of water. Part of our goal is to help teach the next generation so they can take up the torch.”

Tom Herrah, who manages the Seamobile, said the special vehicle was funded through a grant from Williams Foundation in Thomasville and also by the entertainer Jimmy Buffet. The touchable sea life it transports includes horseshoe crabs, blue and stone crabs, sand dollars, conches, whelks, sea urchins and even a sting ray.

“The best thing about the Seamobile is going to schools where a lot of the kids may never have seen the ocean,” Herrah said. “Some are Title I schools where teachers say the kids have never left their home towns. We try to get as much grant money as possible to do free bookings for the schools that can’t afford us.”

Herrah said the Seamobile will be featured at Flint RiverQuarium on Pine Street today.

Because of the stress of transportation, there were no live sea turtles at Chehaw Saturday. But Katie Higgins, education coordinator at the Sea Turtle Center, displayed an inflated life-size loggerhead replica as well as an array of turtle skulls and shells. Higgins’ educational theme was “marine debris” and how it might be prevented or minimized.

To promote World Oceans Day and to make it easier for some to have the experience, Chehaw reduced admission to the zoo by $2 and provided free train rides.