LOCAL

Loggerhead Marinelife Center breaks ground on 27,000-square-foot expansion

Hannah Morse

hmorse@pbpost.com

JUPITER — The year 2022 will start the era of "more" for Loggerhead Marinelife Center. More opportunities to educate students. More opportunities to expand research. More space to rehabilitate sick sea turtles.

In the presence of a 300-strong crowd Wednesday, the Juno Beach-based center broke ground on a three-year, 27,000-square-foot expansion.

"It feels like Christmas morning, a birthday, any wonderful celebration that you can imagine," said LMC Board Chairwoman Lynne Wells. "We have been looking forward to this day for a long time."

The center's Waves of Progress capital campaign, which started in 2017, has reached a $12 million benchmark, but there are still funds to raise as the new goal is about $20 million.

LMC CEO Jack Lighton noted that additional initiatives important to the center were introduced in the four years since the original master plan and $14 million campaign came about.

One of those new features is a seawater filtration system. It will be a costly but necessary system, since recent water quality issues from Lake Okeechobee and the rare spat of red tide leaves ocean water less trustworthy.

Charles Manire, LMC's director of rehabilitation, said that the center currently pumps ocean water directly into the tanks.

"That's exposing our patients to what's going on out there," Manire said. "We're now going to have the ability to close down our intake of water when there are issues out there and purify it on site so we can provide better water quality for our patients."

Lighton added that LMC committed to providing more resources to expand its outreach and education. He said that 350,000 guests visited last year, and a record-breaking 64,000 students participated in activities at the center. Students and veterinarians from across the world come to Juno Beach to train, he said, bringing their knowledge to help sea turtles.

"We look forward to [Loggerhead Marinelife Center] growing as a resource here in Juno Beach for every member of the public that loves the oceans, loves the turtles," said Juno Beach Mayor Jason Haselkorn. "We think it's tremendous. It's a destination. People that come into Palm Beach County make it part of their day trip or part of their visit if they're here for a week."

This expansion, of course, provides more space to take in sea turtle patients. Manire said the center will have an intensive care unit and a quarantine area for critical patients with diseases like the tumorous condition called fibropapillomatosis. The ability to treat turtles that are critically ill at Loggerhead means they won't have to be sent to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center or the Brevard Zoo.

Manire expects the number of turtles they will be able to treat to double.

None of this would be here without founder Eleanor Fletcher, Lighton said, showing off the original copy of her 1973 research permit (she was the first woman in Florida to receive one, Lighton said) and her tan vest that she wore each morning as she conducted her surveys.

"We have a real opportunity to carry the torch of history of our founder," Lighton said. "Every time I look at [the permit], it truly inspires me in terms of what one driven person can do for her community."

hmorse@pbpost.com

@mannahhorse