Bobby has been bugging me for almost a year to set up a group tour for the Crew to the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Ft. Pierce. Well, I finally got around to it and announced the tour to the group back in December.
On Saturday (02/22), we met at the Big Lots parking lot in Palm Bay at 8:30 AM. We had 5 Crew youths, 6 Crew adults, and 2 up-and-coming Crew members. Crew youths were Amanda, Emily, Jackie, James S, and Matt. Jackie brought a certified friend, Jessica, along on the tour as well as her little brother, Cody. Cody's been with us on other trips and can't wait until he turns 14 so he can join the Crew. Crew adults were Emily, Bobby, Dave, Ann, Don, and Bill.
We loaded into the van and 2 other cars and headed south on 95 by 8:50. We took the Indrio exit to US 1 and then headed north on US 1 for 1 mile. The entrance to Harbor Branch in on the south side of US 1. It was very clearly marked and easy to find. We arrived at 9:30.
We checked in at the Gift Shop for our group tour. I had been working with Karen Shooter - the group tour coordinator. Karen greeted us. She gave us a tremendous group rate on a combo tour. The first tour was the Institute campus. This is a bus tour. The second tour was the lagoon tour. This is a boat tour. Usually, the two tours cost $30. We got a tremendous group rate of $13! Karen also set up lunch for us with a local pizza parlor. We told Karen that we would need 4 large pizzas and soda for lunch. Lunch ran $3.50 per person for a total cost of $16.50 per person. WOW!!!!!
Our tour started at 10:00 AM. We got our own bus. Lee was our driver and Ella was our tour guide. First stop, the Visitors' Center. Here we watched a movie that gave a background of the Institute. Harbor Branch is a non-profit organization that was established in 1971 for ocean studies. It is only 1 of 2 Oceanographic Institutes of its kind in the world. The Institute sits on 600 acres of land along the Indian River just north of Ft. Pierce. They have 2 large ships (over 200 foot each) that sail around the world performing oceanographic studies in conjunction with organizations like NOAA, the Smithsonian Institute, NASA, and numerous universities. If you watch the Discovery channel, chances are you've seen one of the Harbor Branch submersibles in the Marianas Trench gathering new deep water species. They were also involved in the Challenger recovery and more recently, the Columbia recovery by looking for debris in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Institute also conducts fish farming, clam seed farming, sea grass farming, tropical fish farming for aquarium shops, university co-ops, marine mammal medicine, fish farming education, and much more.
After the movie, we got to see the original deep sea decompression chambers (which have been decommissioned) and a mock-up of one of the current submersibles. Then we were off to see the new baby dolphin that was recently orphaned. Harbor Branch Marine Biologists are raising the little guy, named Lazareth. (His heart stopped at one point during the rescue and the team was able to bring him back from the dead - hence, the name :) This little guy in only about 4 feet long and has just been weaned from the bottle. What a cutie! Amanda wanted to swim with him. I think we ALL wanted to swim with him!
We continued our tour of the grounds on the bus. It was very impressive. By noon, we were back at the Gift Shop and our pizza was waiting for us. During lunch, Ann presented Amanda with the prestigious Venturing Leadership Award. This is a council level award and only 5 youths from the Central Florida Council are presented with this award each year. Way to go, Amanda! You have definitely earned this award for your outstanding leadership!
After lunch, we loaded up in our cars and drove to the boat dock. At 12:50, we boarded the pontoon tour boat. There were a number of other folks on the boat for the tour. Tom was our captain and tour guide. By 1:00, we were headed out of the harbor in the channel to the Indian River. We passed one of the large Harbor Branch ships on the way out. They were just coming back from a 2 week trip to the Gulf of Mexico (Columbia recovery). It was impressive!
Once out in the lagoon, we started seeing dolphin. In the first 10 minutes, we saw about 6 of them. Then we headed up river and saw a large eagle ray jump out of the water. At one point, Captain Tom took a water sample and put some of the water into Discovery Scopes. These were little hand held microscope type devices that allowed us to see up close and personal what was swimming around in the water. I had no idea...
About 2/3s through the boat tour, Jessica got a little bored and talked James into letting her put make-up on him. Emily got into the act by tweezing his uni-brow into 2 separate eyebrows. At one point, they had him looking rather 'girlie' but by the end of the tour, he looked more like a rock-star. What a hoot!
We arrived back at the dock at 2:30. The kids wanted to get some souvenirs so we headed back to the gift shop. We were on the road to home by 3:00 and were back in Palm Bay by 3:45.
What a wonderful day! It was fun, we had great company, AND it was educational! You don't need a group to do these tours - but you DO get a better rate with a group. Karen said that the next time we come, she'll try to get us a special tour of the High-Bay area where they refurbish the submissibles. Here, we'll get to see the real thing rather than a mock-up.
Check out the Harbor Branch website: http://www.hboi.edu
Dive Safe! Dive Often!
Emily