Grant: 24-009C
Project Title: Hatchling-Juvenile Holding system
Project Manager: Rosemary Lucas
Organization: Zoo Miami Foundation (Zoo Miami) (Florida Government)
Grant Amount: $6,825.00
Completion Date: 2025-05-28
Summary: This project will fund the purchase of a tank and filtration system for the holding of hatchling, post-hatchling, and small debilitated juvenile sea turtles during rehabilitation at Zoo Miami's Sea Turtle Hospital. This purchase will increase capacity, allowing for the smallest of turtles to be cared for without filling up the larger current systems. This system will allow for proper water quality and care during each patient's time in the rehabilitation center.
Results: We have been able to purchase 100% of all needed items for this system. We had many delays with this tank system with several items on back order. The most costly one being the Little Giant pump to circulate the tank we ended up having to purchase a higher horse power pump since the original one was on back order. This actually worked out for us as the system has better flow and the original one would have likely been to weak to truly circulate the whole system well. We were also able to find the chiller/heater system on sale. Since the 6 month report we have been able to use the system twice for small juvenile green sea turtles before they were strong enough to go into our larger systems. We know in a few short weeks we will have hatchlings needing this system and are grateful to be able to assist the Miami Dade County Sea Turtle Conservation Program through out the nesting season. We were able to get graphics onto the tank to be visible for the guest during our sea turtle hospital tours.