This month, Tampa Bay Watch celebrates 29 years of protecting, restoring and beautifying the community by the bay. With the help of dedicated volunteers and members, Tampa Bay Watch works diligently towards the preservation of natural resources, all the while making the environment safer for the marine life residing there. In honor of its 29th anniversary on February 16, Tampa Bay Watch is celebrating with an anniversary challenge.
With an ambitious goal of raising $50,000, gifts will be matched up to $5,000 by Debbie and George Baxter as part of the 29th year commemoration. These funds will allow Tampa Bay Watch to host additional coastal cleanups, facilitate native plantings throughout the bay, create and install oyster reef balls and bags, gather and recycle monofilament fishing line, lead educational eco-vessel tours, school field trips, plus more.
Since its inception in 1993, Tampa Bay Watch is the first organization of its kind in the southeastern United States and has proven highly effective in mobilizing the Tampa Bay community to participate in restoration and protection activities with many accomplishments, including:
Tampa Bay Watch has coordinated more than 250,000 volunteers, students, and campers.Tampa Bay Watch has installed 15,000 oyster reef units and 2,500 tons of oyster shell to create more than two miles of oyster shell reef communities, and planted more than 1,000,000 salt marsh grasses to restore 250 acres of coastal tidal ponds to Tampa Bay since 1993.
In 2005, Tampa Bay Watch completed construction of the Marine and Education center in Tierra Verde Approximately 68,000 volunteers have participated in our hands-on habitat restoration projects over 29 years. In 2014, Tampa Bay Watch in partnership with SWFWMD SWIM accomplished the largest Salt Marsh Planting in Tampa Bay history with 400 volunteers planting 40,000 plugs of salt marsh at the Rock Ponds Ecosystem Restoration Project.Bay Grasses in Classes allows middle and high school students the opportunity to maintain and grow native wetland grasses at their school to be replanted into targeted coastal areas which has resulted in the restoration of more than 175 acres around Tampa Bay.
In 2005, Tampa Bay Watch completed construction of the Auer Marine and Education Center in Tierra Verde, and in 2019 the new Discovery Center on the St. Pete Pier. The efforts of Tampa Bay Watch to restore and protect the bay’s habitat through stewardship and community awareness provide effective long-term improvements to the bay and empower the community with the knowledge to counteract environmental problems. Visit tampabaywatch.org/lovethebay to give today.
Photos available to download here.
About Tampa Bay WatchTampa Bay Watch is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to fostering a healthy Tampa Bay watershed through community-driven restoration projects, education programs, and outreach initiatives. Incorporated in 1993, Tampa Bay Watch conducts habitat restoration and educational activities throughout the year, relying heavily on the efforts of community volunteers. These programs seek to build citizen awareness, concern and participation in improving the health and sustainability of Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay Watch opened the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center at the new St. Pete Pier in July 2020. The Discovery Center features a public Exhibit Gallery showcasing the economic and ecological value of the Tampa Bay estuary to residents and visitors, a 45’ eco-vessel which conducts daily on-water educational activities and both an outdoor “wet” classroom and an indoor classroom offering a variety of environmental outreach programs to visitors and Tampa Bay area students. For more information, visit www.tampabaywatch.org, or call 727-867-8166.