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Marine center is ready to teach

The $1.8-million Tampa Bay Watch Marine and Education Center wants every seventh-grader to learn the science of the sea.

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE
Published December 12, 2005

TIERRA VERDE - The public can finally take a peek at the county's newest science classrooms.

The new Tampa Bay Watch Marine and Education Center, an 8,000-square-foot beach behemoth built on 15-foot stilts and topped with a flashing beacon light, had its open house early this month.

The center, which overlooks the shoreline, has pristine shiny floors made of renewable resources and features a boat dock at the mouth of the bay where seventh-graders can talk oysters.

The marine center is located just before the Fort De Soto Park toll booth.

"I can't believe it, but dreams do come true," said executive director Peter Clark at a dedication ceremony.

The $1.8-million project began in 1997, when Cunningham Key went for sale and county officials worked to secure the land for Tampa Bay Watch, a nonprofit environmental group that Clark founded 12 years ago in his spare bedroom.

When the state and county purchased 16 acres of shorefront property in 2000, it took the group nearly three years to build its administrative offices before completing plans for the marine center and lighthouse, Clark said.

The Tierra Verde Light, which is the first lighthouse built in Florida since 1954, consists of a lantern room perched on the two-story marine center, boasting a beacon light that can be seen from the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Construction for the facilities began last October.

Educational programs will be designed for seventh-grade Pinellas County students, with habitat restoration projects at the core of the science curriculum, said Janice Creniti, Tampa Bay Watch education coordinator. Sixteen middle and high schools already have salt marsh nurseries in place.

And one program allows students to make 120-pound oyster domes by pouring marine-friendly concrete into a special mold.

About 300 domes are installed near seawalls each year, collecting thousands of oysters that might have normally been picked.

Oysters are natural water filters that clean as much as 10 gallons of water per hour.

Tampa Bay Watch will initiate the curriculum with field testing in January, working with groups of 25 students before kicking off the program next fall, Creniti said. At the moment, she is working with 20 teachers, including some from Palm Harbor Middle School, Admiral Farragut Academy and Madeira Beach Middle School.

With the marine center completed, the goal now is getting every seventh-grader in the county involved in the program within three years, she said.

[Last modified December 12, 2005, 01:10:15]