Operations Announcement
Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) and the Juno Beach Pier (JBP) are taking the first, careful steps to reopen and welcome guests back to their campuses. The Center has made important changes to its operations to ensure the health and safety of all guests, volunteers, staff and sea turtle patients. This operations announcement leverages best practices from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is participating in the State of Florida’s Safe. Smart. Step-By-Step Plan for Florida’s full recovery from COVID-19.
Loggerhead Marinelife Center
The Sea Turtle Hospital at LMC will resume its general operating hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a limited guest count, additional sanitizing, social distancing signage, extra hand sanitizer stations and amplified health and safety policies. Both LMC and JBP staff and volunteers will be required to wear face coverings as well.
As detailed in the operations announcement, LMC also requires guests to wear face coverings during visits with the exception of guests who are younger than two-years-old. Two staff members will be stationed at Loggerhead Park to greet guests and regulate capacity requirements, which are no more than 100 guests surrounding the Outdoor Sea Turtle Hospital and Tortuga Terrace.
Juno Beach Pier
The JBP will resume sunrise to sunset operations, Monday through Sunday. There will be a limited guest count to maintain social distancing. All transactions will be conducted through a partitioned window to eliminate contact. Also, the pier will perform increased sanitation efforts, involving hourly cleaning of the pier house interior and bait stations. The Center recommends but does not require face coverings for guests at the JBP.
“We look forward to welcoming our guests back to our campus. The health and safety of our staff, guests, volunteers and sea turtle patients are our top priorities, and in response to this global pandemic, we have reworked our daily operations to provide the utmost safety and health standards possible,” said Tim Hannon, LMC Chief Operating Officer. “We encourage guests to visit us, but to also be a part of the solution by adhering to best practices administered by the CDC.”
In alignment with the state’s reopening, LMC and the Juno Beach Pier are:
⦁ Pausing public programs
⦁ Prohibiting access to certain indoor spaces
⦁ Reducing guest counts in retail spaces and offering contact-free curbside pick-up for online orders
Virtual Programming
In light of reopening its campus on Monday, May 18, LMC will scale back its live virtual programming, however the Center plans to continue to provide educators and students with free educational resources.Although we will no longer host daily, virtual programs, we will offer several virtual programs throughout the week. Additionally, our team of passionate educators are working hard on the next generation of virtual education experiences; please stay tuned for more updates and a program schedule. In the meantime LMC will offer Virtual Camp beginning on June 1st, as well as limited, in-person programming at the Center’s Juno Beach Campus. Educators. students and supporters can explore the Center’s Educator’s Portal, Virtual Coastal Classroom , and Educator’s YouTube Playlist.
In the coming weeks, the Center will offer additional virtual experiences, including, but not limited to:
- Virtual Camp (beginning on June 1)
- Virtual Summer Programming
- Video Patient Updates (subscribe to YouTube)
- YouTube Videos (added weekly)
- And Virtual Programming for World Ocean’s Month (June)
- Virtual Field Trips
- Virtual Tours
- Live Sea Turtle Camera
Together, we can get back on our feet! For more reopening information, please visit the Center’s homepage marinelife.org
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Loggerhead Marinelife Center. Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) is a nonprofit sea turtle research, rehabilitation and educational institution that promotes conservation of ocean ecosystems with a focus on threatened and endangered sea turtles. The Center features an on-site hospital, research laboratory, educational exhibits and aquariums, and also operates the Juno Beach Pier, which hosts world-class angling and sightseeing. Situated on one of the world’s most important sea turtle nesting beaches, Loggerhead Marinelife Center is open daily and hosts over 360,000 guests free-of-charge each year. The Center’s conservation team works with 90 local and international organizations across six continents to form partnerships and share conservation initiatives and best practices that are core to its mission of ocean conservation. The Center is expanding and has launched its Waves of Progress capital expansion campaign, designed to accelerate and amplify LMC’s conservation and education impact. For more information, visit www.marinelife.org or call (561) 627-8280.
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Media Contact:
Lauren Eissey
Public Relations and Engagement Specialist
561-627-8280, x124