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<p>When asked to describe herself, ocean educator Brenda “B.J.” Ramer naturally turns to the sea when looking for the right metaphor.</p><p>”Most people are like plankton; they go with the flow,” Ramer said. “I’m like a humpback whale. I go against the current.” </p><p>Case in point: when she decided to open her Team ECCO Ocean Center and Aquarium in downtown Hendersonville in 2009, Ramer said many people thought she was nuts. “Why do we need to teach about marine life in the mountains?” they sneered.</p><p>Ramer didn’t bother answering the naysayers directly, because she knew the answer was too complex to articulate with a snappy one-line comeback. Instead, she let the results speak for themselves.</p><p>”People might fuss and say, ‘What’s the point of having it here?"” she said. “But I don’t have to justify my purpose, because the kids who spend time here — as volunteers, as interns, as visitors — they define my purpose. The people whose opinion matters most to me are those under 5 feet tall.”</p><p>This year, Team ECCO’s 14th year as a nonprofit, the aquarium hosted more than 10,000 visitors and offered educational programs to 3,200 students from the community on topics such as coral reefs, marine invertebrates, sharks, rays and turtles. </p><p>Along the way, Ramer has nurtured hundreds of local kids as interns and volunteers. Many go on to major in marine biology or other sciences in college. By using students to help run the aquarium, Ramer hopes to inspire them to find their own path in life, whatever it is. </p><p>”For me, it’s about being able to share my passion and maybe not share it verbally, but also instill a spark somewhere in them,” she said. “I don’t look for all these kids to grow up to be Jacques Cousteau. Maybe they will, but even those that don’t will learn accountability, responsibility and that you only get out of your community what you’re willing to give to others.”</p><p>Ramer has given back to her community in many capacities over the years. Her service includes stints on the boards of the Henderson County YMCA, Healing Place and Flat Rock Playhouse, where she and her husband, Tom, co-chaired the YouTheatre building campaign. </p><p>She’s also been a charter member of the Hendersonville Jaycees and long-time participant in Hendersonville’s Business and Professional Women’s Club. Most recently, Ramer was appointed by city council to serve on the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority.</p><p>”My real goal (on TDA’s board) is to be a voice for local tourist attractions there, because it’s so focused on putting heads in beds,” she said. “They sometimes forget that without the attractions, there’d be no means for putting people in accommodations.”</p><p>Fellow TDA member Kathy Kanupp said Ramer “brings a modern, up-to-date perspective to our board. She’s here for the youth of the county, so she stays in touch with Facebook, Twitter and other social media. She brings a real freshness to the board.”</p><p>Working with the children of local families, Ramer agrees one of her goals on TDA’s board is to inject a “younger feel into the county.”</p><p>”When we moved here 30 years ago, it was a retirement place,” she said. “That’s no longer the case. Young families are moving here. Our schools are exploding. So I try to be a fresh voice, a questioning voice that says, ‘Why not try something new?’ Just because we always did it a certain way doesn’t make it the only way.”</p><p>Allison Romstadt, a long-time Team ECCO board member, said Ramer has always been one to think outside the box. </p><p>” ‘No’ is not a word in her vocabulary,” she said. “You can’t tell B.J. no. She was recently turned down for a grant, and her response was, ‘I built this business from the ground up in my kitchen. We’ll figure out another way.’ “</p><p><b>Work ethic</b></p><p>Ramer developed a reputation for tenacity and alternative thinking long before she arrived in Hendersonville. Growing up in Toronto, Ohio, she was the first female in her high school to take drafting class. </p><p>She worked a series of toilsome jobs throughout her youth, including cleaning houses, picking strawberries and sweeping out the local steel mill where her dad worked. </p><p>”That how I paid to finish college,” she said of the steel mill gig. “My parents had a strong work ethic, and they passed that onto me.”</p><p>Originally interested in teaching deaf children, Ramer earned a bachelor’s in special education from the University of Cincinnati in 1981. She earned a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University, where she completed her Masters in Education in 1982 and student-taught at the Tennessee School for the Blind. </p><p>A year after marrying her high-school sweetheart, Tom, Ramer and her husband moved to Hendersonville in 1983 with nothing but their “degrees, two cars and some furnishings.” </p><p>Ramer got her first teaching job at Bruce Drysdale Elementary, but later moved to special ed programs in Etowah Elementary and Hendersonville Middle School.</p><p>In 2001, she was working as a “itinerant teacher” at Hendersonville Middle when she had an epiphany. She’d gotten involved with a program called Oceans for Youth, a nonprofit designed to promote underwater education. Ramer had also recently fallen in love with snorkeling and scuba diving in coral reefs. </p><p>”I thought, ‘How can I tie this new love I’d found into my other love, which is teaching?’ ” Ramer recalled. “When you’re under the water, you really understand who your higher power is. It just moved me very, very deeply, and trying to connect that passion to working with kids became important to me.”</p><p>Team ECCO was thus born in Ramer’s kitchen, with dreams of “taking children to science instead of science to children.” </p><p>In September 2001, Ramer led her first trip of 25 students to Florida to swim with manatees. It was the first of many excursions she would lead to saltwater destinations from the Southeast to the Caribbean. </p><p>Kanupp said the community is blessed to have someone so passionate about oceans in their midst. </p><p>”She has such a great love for these animals that it’s phenomenal, and she’s found a way to pass that passion onto her visitors and volunteers,” she said. “How many people do you know that would stay up all night with a sick stingray? She really has some salt water running through her veins.”</p>
If you take a good look at the captures of the octopus, you will instantly notice that it looks nothing like the fear inciting monsters of the deep or the usually not so pleasantly looking brethren of this little guy.
Pink and mushy, with big round nicely edged eyes and two fins on its head resembling small wearable horns, the octopus falls nothing short of cartoon character inspired adorable.
Perhaps it might remind you of a cartoon character indeed. Or an animated game character. Or the cutest stuffed toy to be wrapped up in red ribbon and delivered as a present. Either way, the small octopus became viral with the scientists’ attempt to find a name fitting for it.
For now, the flapjack as it is nicknamed, is awaiting just a little while longer for a name to be bestowed to its species since 1990 when it was first discovered.
Stephanie Bush, the scientist who has the responsibility of naming the little cephalopod and postdoctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute declared in amusement:
“As someone that’s describing the species you get to pick what the specific name is. One of the thoughts I had was making it Opisthoteuthis adorabilis because they’re really cute”.
The flapjack cephalopod was first photographed approximately 330 meters under the Monterey Bay surface. Since its discovery, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute is working in collaboration with the Monterey Bay Aquarium aquarists to fully understand the adorable species.
So far, it is known that the Adorabilis lives in the deep ocean water, below 1,000 feet. Only approximately seven inches long, the tiny specimens are fragile, gelatinous and feature a web that connects their arms.
Using one of three means of motion or all three at once, the small cephalopods roam the ocean floors praying on creatures even smaller than they are. They move either by using their fins to swim or by funneling water to propel their tiny bodies upwards and hover for a while. Otherwise, they choose to move the web-connected arms in a wobbly dance.
Although the tiny, adorable cephalopod was discovered in 1990, naming the new species is a lengthy and complex process that also involves the collection of specimens to be sent to museums and aquarium nationwide.
This proved problematic as whatever specimens were captured and held for a while in captivity died.
One of the adorable fragile cephalopod laid eggs which are still being kept at Monterey Bay Aquarium, in the hope they will hatch and bring more Opisthoteuthis adorabilis to the aquarium.
Image Source: cmgdigital.com
Newswise — GAINESVILLE, Fla. – University of Florida researchers will work with other scientists to study how to make the water and marine life in Tampa Bay healthier, which in turn could help protect Florida’s offshore ecosystems and fishing economy.
Scientists with UF/IFAS are the first researchers at the Center for Conservation, part of an alliance comprised of UF/IFAS, Tampa’s Florida Aquarium, Tampa Electric Co. and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The partnership came about after Tampa Electric, a subsidiary of TECO Energy, offered the Florida Aquarium 20 acres in Apollo Beach for off-site quarantine and animal holding in 2012-13, said Craig Watson, director of the UF/IFAS Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory in Ruskin. Watson suggested the partners bring FWC aboard because the agency was looking for marine enhancement centers, Watson said.
Then TECO, the Florida Aquarium, UF/IFAS and FWC formed an alliance to create the Center for Conservation on the Apollo Beach site, he said. The site is also near TECO’s Manatee Viewing Center. The CFC will try to solve aquatic resource problems, Watson said.
“One major goal is to attract universities and other research entities to the site in an ‘open campus’ situation,” Watson said.
Enter UF/IFAS. Two new researchers are in on the ground floor of UF/IFAS’ participation: Josh Patterson, an assistant professor of restoration aquaculture and Mark Flint, a research assistant scientist in coastal and marine sciences, are now at the Apollo Beach site working closely with the state government, not-for-profit and commercial partners.
Aquaculture is the process of growing, harvesting, shipping and marketing aquatic animals and plants. Through his research, Patterson tries to figure out how to grow corals and other species and use them to restore natural areas.
Patterson gave two reasons why aquatic restoration is essential for Florida.
First, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated in 2011 that Florida’s coral reefs have an asset value of $8.5 billion and generate more than 70,000 full- and part-time jobs. Additionally, coral reefs benefit Florida by attracting tourism, providing recreational activities, enhancing fisheries, protecting the coastline, and providing ecological services.
As a veterinary epidemiologist, Flint said he’s helping identify health issues in Tampa Bay. In particular, he studies sea turtles because they provide a great baseline for health in that body of water.
While there’s no single sentinel indicator of environmental health, Flint said he’s creating a surveillance program for Tampa Bay and Florida’s waters that includes multiple species, each giving an insight into the health of an area depending on how they use their homes.
“Sea turtles live for about 100 years,” Flint said. “They live in the same area for basically their whole lives, use the same foraging areas, nest on the same beaches, mate in the same areas. This makes them a great study for seeing what is going on in Tampa Bay.”
By Brad Buck, 352-294-3303, bradbuck@ufl.edu
Sources: Craig Watson, 813-671-5230, ext. 107, cawatson@ufl.edu
Josh Patterson, 813-419-4917, joshpatterson@ufl.edu
Mark Flint, 813-419-4917, flintm@ufl.edu
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It was the way he said it that hit me. We were watching the white and orange and red koi fish surfacing, opening their large concentric mouths. They dipped back under the brown water and bumped scales, before gliding away to suck algae on concrete walls. They were 20-year-old fish, longer and wider than my forearm.
We had stepped away from the extended family, the flourishes of waitstaff and our dinners. My son laid his head on the pillow of his arm, which rested on the wood railing of the bridge where we stood. Neither of us felt communicative. We watched fish as if we were watching a baseball game on TV. The movement lulled us into a stillness that hasn’t been possible in the urgent commotion of our home where the boy’s newborn sister has wailed.
He said it while watching the colors of the fish mingle in the brown pond water. He said it at first without lifting his head from the railing on the bridge.
“I really need a fish in my life.”
White and orange and red surfaced and disappeared.
“Daddy,” he said, turning toward me, the palms of his not-yet 3-year-old hands up, arms spread. “I really need a fish in my life.” He squinted his eyes, the wrinkles in his sun-kissed face pressed for an appeal.
I didn’t think about how we were standing on a little wooden bridge at the time, but I was thinking about his season of transition — the move from crib to full bed, the combined baby/toddler class at the Little Gym he was too big for and the piss-warm, over-chlorinated pool water he choked on while trying to keep up at the Y during swim lessons.
His mother and I have talked to him about using the potty, but haven’t followed through. We’ve all been tired, and I knew that he wasn’t really asking me for a fish. So I complied and punctuated my “OK, buddy” with a few pats on the head. The way my father might have done. The way fathers and sons can speak to each other when they’re too tired to talk.
This essay first appeared in Weston Magazine.
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