This is a video I took when I was vacationing in Sarasota, Florida. Sarasota is about an hour away from Tampa, and has some amazing tropical wildlife. Unfortunately, there are many seabirds in the area that are plagued by injuries from fishing wire left on beaches, oil spills and more. This great organization, Save Our Seabirds Inc., is doing a great job trying to rehabilitate injured birds as well as providing permanent homes for those that will never be able to be released back into the wild. It is so sad to see cranes whose legs had to be amputated because they have been severely damaged by fishing line! Although it is extremely sad to hear stories like this, Save Our Seabirds has fabulous volunteers who help care for the animals and help educate visitors. I have always loved birds (and owned a small cockatiel and parakeets), but the volunteers at this center in Sarasota taught me a lot about the surrounding wildlife. It was so funny to see that even the wild birds come visit the rehab center in hopes that they can get some fresh fish or other treats. It was a great experience visiting and If you go visit the tampa/sarasota area, it is a really great trip. Its also free!
Also, there is an aquarium in the same complex. I did not get a chance to visit it, but got a peak of the dolphins (thanks to one of the nice gentlemen that worked there and allowed me to go in for a minute after they closed =) ). This aquarium is called the Mote Marine Aquarium, which is also attached to an aquatic lab and school. I think it would be an excellent place to visit for people traveling in the area.
Here are the links to Save Our Seabirds and the Mote Marine Aquarium
MOTE MARINE LABORATORY - AQUARIUM:
http://www.mote.org/index.php?submenu=AQUARIUM&src=gendocs&ref=Aquarium&category=Aquarium
SAVE OUR SEABIRDS INC :
http://www.saveourseabirds.org/
I hope you will visit these websites and learn more about all that these organizations do to help animals.
P.S. Please forgive the terrible filming. I just got a new flip video camera and it is really difficult to keep it steady. Hopefully the next video post will be a little bit clearer and less shakey. Also, I know it is difficult to see through the cage bars, but the first shot is of the owls cage and it is hard to see them because they camouflage so well! Enjoy the video =)
