Atlanta’s first and only vacation ownership resort kicks off the summer with $10,000 donation to fund free Title I school visits to local aquarium during upcoming school year.

Atlanta’s newest resort in Centennial Park, Margaritaville Vacation Club^® – Atlanta, extended its commitment to the city today, announcing its presenting partnership of Georgia Aquarium’s Dolphin Coast presentation and gallery.

To kick off the partnership, Margaritaville Vacation Club also announced it would donate $10,000 to Georgia Aquarium’s Sponsored Education Admissions (SEA) Grant, which provides free self-guided admission to select Title I Schools in the State of Georgia. The program ensures that diverse audiences, regardless of economic status, have an opportunity to experience the wonders of the aquarium.

“As a global leisure travel company, hospitality and responsible tourism is at the heart of all we do, and we strive to positively impact the world around us,” said Jeff Myers, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Wyndham Destinations. “Our partnership with Georgia Aquarium helps support a leading nonprofit in our newest timeshare destination – the vibrant city of Atlanta. And we could not think of a more perfect pairing for the laid-back, adventurous lifestyle of the Margaritaville Vacation Club brand than Dolphin Coast.”

Newly rebranded as the Margaritaville Vacation Club Dolphin Coast, the daily 15-minute, trainer-led presentations give aquarium guests a glimpse into the beauty, athleticism and intelligence of the common bottlenose dolphin. The Dolphin Coast gallery lobby will soon be outfitted with a brand-new roseate spoonbill and scarlet ibis habitat featuring both aquatic and arboreal elements – the first habitat of its kind at Georgia Aquarium. By providing a glimpse at these colorful and gregarious birds up close, the new gallery exhibit will educate guests on the diversity and delicate balance of coastal ecosystems.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Margaritaville Vacation Club as a partner of Georgia Aquarium – and to the Downtown Atlanta community,” said Brian Davis, Ph.D., president and CEO of Georgia Aquarium. “Millions of guests who visit our aquarium get the unique opportunity to learn about dolphins and their important role in our ocean’s ecosystem. Partnerships like these are crucial to our mission to inspire awareness and preservation of aquatic animals and their ecosystem – our world’s oceans.”

One of Atlanta’s newest landmark buildings, the Margaritaville Vacation Club resort first opened its doors for guests in June 2022 and celebrates its one year anniversary this month. Dual-branded with Club Wyndham, the 22-story urban oasis is located on the edge of Centennial Olympic Park and features spacious one-bedroom standard and one-, two- and three-bedroom deluxe and presidential suites that bring the relaxed escapism of Margaritaville to life.

Situated at the base of the resort tower and open to the public, the two-story Margaritaville Restaurant is now offering a signature cocktail, Fins To The Left^®, to benefit the Georgia Aquarium. Blended with Margaritaville Silver Tequila, Blue Curaçao and the restaurant’s house margarita blend, the blue cocktail gives a nod to the ocean waters the common bottlenose dolphin call home. Twenty-five percent of each specialty drink purchase this summer will be donated back to the aquarium.

Existing Margaritaville Vacation Club and Club Wyndham timeshare owners can book their stay at Margaritaville Vacation Club – Atlanta by visiting MargaritavilleVacationClub.com.

Non-owners can test drive the vacation ownership life by booking a stay through the Wyndham Destinations booking platform ExtraHolidays.com. For a limited time and on select dates only, travelers and staycationers alike who book a qualifying three-night rental stay at the new Atlanta resort will enjoy a free Sleep Under the Sea experience* during their second night in the city. Open to children ages seven and up accompanied by an adult (21+), the Sleep Under the Sea program allows visitors to explore Georgia Aquarium after dark and spend the night with a view of one its captivating gallery windows.

To learn more about Georgia Aquarium and its exhibits, as well as to purchase admissions, please visit GeorgiaAquarium.org.

Media Contacts:

Melissa Landy
Margaritaville Vacation Club
(407) 626-3830
Media@wyn.com

Paige Hale
Georgia Aquarium
(404) 581-4230
Phale@georgiaaquarium.org

The Coral Restoration Foundation™ (CRF™), in partnership with Georgia Aquarium, has proudly unveiled the “Coral Bus”, a cutting-edge aquarium trailer system designed to transport nursery-raised corals safely to their new homes within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. 

With the world’s coral reefs facing unprecedented challenges from climate change, pollution, and other human-induced stressors, the need for innovative solutions in coral restoration and conservation has never been more urgent. The Coral Bus was developed to address the issue of coral stress during transport – removing as many stressors as possible gives these endangered animals an even better chance of survival in the wild.  

The Coral Bus is a first-of-its-kind coral transport technology that closely replicates the open ocean conditions to which the corals are already acclimated. The state-of-the-art aquarium trailer enables practitioners to monitor and regulate water temperature, pH, filtration, and water flow to ensure the well-being of corals during transport, minimizing the stress experienced by these fragile animals while they are on the move.  

“The Coral Bus now constitutes an incredible tool for our daily operations at CRF™ offering us year-round transport capabilities that can adapt to seasonal in-situ conditions,” says Jessica Levy, CRF™ Director Restoration Strategy, “By closely replicating the natural environment during transport, this system will help ensure the comfort and well-being of the corals we are moving. By reducing shock to these delicate animals, we are giving them an even better chance of surviving and thriving in the wild. We are deeply grateful to Georgia Aquarium for their invaluable contributions to this groundbreaking project. Their expertise and support have been instrumental in revolutionizing coral transportation, paving the way for a brighter future for coral reefs and marine ecosystems. Now we are just looking forward to hitting the road!”  

“Coral restoration and conservation is an on-going mission for Georgia Aquarium, both at home and in tandem with partners, like CRF,™” said Steve Hartter, associate curator of fish and invertebrates at Georgia Aquarium. “We were thrilled to have contributed to the completion of the Coral Bus, which will give CRF™ the ability to expand their impactful work preserving our ocean’s coral reefs.” 

The Coral Bus was designed and built by Coral Restoration Foundation™ and Georgia Aquarium with support from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.  

Georgia Aquarium has formed a unique partnership with Taiwan researchers and wildlife officials to advance scientific knowledge on sharks and rays through a long-term field research collaboration in Taiwanese national waters.

The Aquarium, National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU) and Taiwan’s Fisheries Research Institute (TFRI) will work together in a 10-year conservation program that will compile baseline data on multiple marine species living off Taiwanese shores. The research will include placing receivers onto fishing trap nets throughout Taiwan’s coastal waters and acoustic tags onto individual animals and to track where they travel and for how long.

The research will include whale sharks, manta rays, bowmouth guitarfish and other threatened and endangered ocean species.

“This partnership has great potential to teach us more about sharks and rays,” said Dr. Alistair Dove, Vice President of Science and Education at Georgia Aquarium. “Working alongside our Taiwanese partners, our scientists will collect information from acoustic tracking and other technology that will contribute greatly to informing strategies to conserve and protect these endangered species.”

There are about 1,250 species of cartilaginous fish in the world, and 190 species of sharks and rays are found in the waters around Taiwan. Pooling the expertise and resources of the three parties, the research is expected to reveal habitat preferences, mobile behavior habits and geospatial distribution of these species. Georgia Aquarium will provide research equipment such as Baited Remote Underwater Videos (BRUVs), fixed acoustic arrays deployed on pelagic trap nets, and satellite tag tracking.
“This partnership will gather national and international resources such as research vessel and tracking devices or software to share valuable knowledge, experience, and technology on chondrichthyan biology, ecology and behavior,” said Hua Hsun Hsu, Ph.D., with the Coastal and Offshore Resources Research Center in Taiwan. “These studies will provide the public knowledge to inspire awareness, and more importantly, submit recommendations to the government for appropriate policies.”

In addition, Hsu said, the collaboration will encourage Taiwanese fishing operators to release sharks and rays they catch. Taiwan has banned fishing of five shark species, including oceanic whitetip, silky, great white, basking and megamouth sharks, and stronger protections are in place for whale sharks, manta rays and all species of sawfish.

Georgia Aquarium research scientists recently began working with Taiwanese experts as the program was developed. Research scientist Dr. Kady Lyons conducted workshops in Taiwan on how to apply tags. Dr. Lisa Hoopes, Director of Research, Conservation and Nutrition at the Aquarium, will travel to Taiwan this spring to work alongside NTOU and TFRI scientists.

Georgia Aquarium is the only aquarium in the Western Hemisphere providing the unique care and habitat required for whale sharks. For 18 years the Aquarium’s experts have cared for whale sharks, compiling unprecedented scientific knowledge about this little-known species and educating more than 40 million people about the world’s largest fish.

“Most of what we know about these species has only been discovered over the past couple of decades,” Dove said. “We have learned a great deal about whale shark behavior and cognition through care and studies in the Aquarium. With the insight of local knowledge of species and their biology paired with the understanding of local conservation threats from our partners, we hope the long-term research study will allow us to unravel the missing pieces to better conserve and protect sharks and rays.”

Georgia Aquarium is committed to advancing marine conservation and protection through science and education, advocacy, connecting and inspiring millions of people every year to save sharks, rays and other threatened species.

Georgia Aquarium and the Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF) have come together to bring aquatic animals to patients in Seacrest Studios at children’s hospitals around the country, including Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Children’s). By providing fun and engaging video footage, Georgia Aquarium is joining RSF’s efforts to transport patients out of the hospital and into engaging adventures during their treatment.

To kick off this partnership, the animal teams from Georgia Aquarium visited Children’s Egleston Hospital to provide fun, virtual visits with their animals back at the Aquarium, interact with animal care takers at the hospital, and get an Aquarium plushie. The Ryan Seacrest Foundation has built 11, soon to be 14, broadcast media centers named Seacrest Studios in pediatric hospitals nationwide – including a location at Egleston – as a part of their mission to provide patients the opportunity to explore radio, television, and new media. With the help of Seacrest Studios, Georgia Aquarium connected Atlanta patients to live, interactive Zoom encounters with their sea lions, dolphins, and penguins. Patients and their families watched and engaged with Aquarium trainers live in the Seacrest Studios at Egleston.

The Ryan Seacrest Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to inspiring today’s youth through entertainment and education-focused initiatives. RSF utilizes its Seacrest Studios to contribute positively to the healing process for children and their families through access to multimedia experiences. By bringing patients on exciting adventures, RSF aims to encourage optimistic thoughts during treatment.

“The Ryan Seacrest Foundation is thrilled to team up with the Georgia Aquarium to virtually take patients under the sea to meet and learn all about aquatic animals,” said Meredith Seacrest Leach, executive director & coo of the Ryan Seacrest Foundation. “We are grateful to share this unique and engaging marine life education not only with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, but also with our entire Seacrest Studios network.”

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is Georgia’s leading pediatric healthcare provider with three hospitals and multiple neighborhood locations. For more than 100 years, their purpose has been to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow. Patients and their families are able to enjoy the many engaging studio offerings, which occasionally includes special guest visits, like the trainers from Georgia Aquarium.

The Aquarium’s partnership with RSF creates an opportunity to connect kids in children’s hospitals nationwide with the ocean and animals that call it home, regardless of location. In addition to the Zoom visit with aquarium animals at Seacrest Studios in Atlanta, Georgia Aquarium also provided RSF with video content from multiple exhibits to stream via their closed-circuit TV network. Georgia Aquarium is committed to inspiring the next generation of marine advocates. “We believe that every child should have the opportunity to learn about our world ocean. Our partnership with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation allows us to extend that opportunity to patients undergoing medical treatment at certain children’s hospitals throughout the U.S. with engaging aquarium content,” said Jessica Wood, senior director of communications at Georgia Aquarium.

For ways to support Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, visit their website, here. Learn more about ways to support the Ryan Seacrest Foundation by visiting their website, here.

For media photos and broll of Georgia Aquarium’s visit to CHOA, please see the links below:

Photos

Broll

Social Video

Credit: Georgia Aquarium

Over the past couple of weeks, Georgia Aquarium welcomed 11 cold-stunned sea turtles to their off-site care facility for temporary care and housing. Four of these turtles are loggerheads, an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). The other seven, Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, are also an endangered species under the ESA and is the smallest sea turtle species in the world. All 11 turtles were rescued off the coast of New England after they were found suffering from cold-stunning – a condition in which sea turtles become weak and inactive from exposure to cold temperatures.

Along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Aquarium comes together to help sea turtles during cold-stunning events. In the cold weather months, NOAA actively plans for cold-stunning events to organize and deploy resources to look for, and assist cold-stunned turtles. Georgia Aquarium is part of this multi-institutional effort alongside other zoos, aquariums, and rescue organizations to save hundreds of turtles each year.

How did these rescued sea turtles make it to Georgia all the way from New England?

Turtles Fly Too is an organization made up of pilots that aid in coordinating and facilitating large-scale relocation efforts for endangered species. They donate their time, aircrafts, and resources to fly cold-stunned sea turtles to zoos and aquariums for treatment and care until they can return to the ocean. The pilots and volunteers at Turtles Fly Too are crucial in ensuring safe transport for these animals.

Georgia Aquarium’s team of expert aquarists and veterinarians performed an initial exam on the turtles upon their arrival. Two of the loggerhead sea turtles received CAT scans at BluePearl Pet Hospital as part of preventative care. BluePearl is a network of veterinary hospitals across the country and has several locations in Atlanta. The Aquarium partners with them to utilize their advanced imaging systems in situations such as these, for large or unique animals. BluePearl generously donated their time and resources to perform these scans, to ensure there are no underlying issues while the Aquarium handles the turtle’s veterinary care.

Georgia Aquarium is proud to provide a home and care for these cold-stunned sea turtles with the goal of eventual release back to the ocean. Without our help, these animals face worsening conditions which can lead to death. It is crucial that we do our part to save these endangered species.

Georgia Aquarium’s animal teams will continue to monitor the turtles as they warm up, provide feedings and any additional veterinary care they may need until they are strong enough to be released. “Georgia Aquarium is proud to provide a home and care for these cold-stunned sea turtles with the goal of eventual release back to the ocean,” said Kristin Mathews, senior curator of animal acquisitions and quarantine at Georgia Aquarium. “Without our help, these animals face worsening conditions which can lead to death. It is crucial that we do our part to save these endangered species.”

The Aquarium will work alongside NOAA to determine when these animals can be released back into the ocean. Until that time, Georgia Aquarium will provide a temporary home and critical care to these rescued animals.

In a significant response to urgent climate-related threats, a new international center headquartered at Georgia Aquarium, endorsed by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, will support versatile, collaborative solutions to improve the health of the world’s oceans.

The Ocean Visions ­­– UN Decade Collaborative Center for Ocean-Climate Solutions (OV – UN DCC), a partnership with Ocean Visions, Georgia Aquarium, and Georgia Institute of Technology, is the only center of its kind in the United States.

The climate crisis is one of the greatest threats facing public health, natural resources and the economy worldwide, and ocean ecosystems are not only at risk, but also offer the potential of climate mitigation solutions.

The primary focus of the Center is to help co-design, develop, test, fund and deliver scalable and equitable ocean-based solutions to reduce the effects of climate change and build climate-resilient marine ecosystems and coastal communities. There are also tremendous opportunities to accelerate carbon clean-up and advance sustainable ocean economies.

“A diverse approach is critical to address today’s serious threats to ocean health,” said Brian Davis, Ph.D., president and CEO of Georgia Aquarium. “As a mission-focused conservation leader, Georgia Aquarium is keen to host this multinational center that will connect innovative researchers with the resources to create and launch projects that may solve ocean-climate issues.”

In affiliation with the Ocean Decade, run by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Center’s work will contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to achieve by 2030 that are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

“In response to the need for partnership and investment in ocean science, and to help urgently mitigate the impact of climate change on the ocean, the Ocean Decade movement thanks Ocean Visions, Georgia Aquarium, and Georgia Institute of Technology for this generous support and long-term commitment,” said Julian Barbière, Ocean Decade Global Coordinator and Head of the Marine Policy and Regional Coordination Section, IOC-UNESCO. “Such exemplary leadership by our Decade Collaborative Centers, spearheaded by the OV – UN DCC in the U.S. is an important step towards developing effective ocean-climate solutions.”

The ocean nurtures 80% of all life on Earth. Billions of people rely on food from the ocean, and world economies depend upon it for fishing, tourism, shipping, energy and more. It is the world’s largest carbon sink, vital to curbing the impacts of climate change. Healthy marine habitats defend coastal communities from intensifying storms and flooding.

“The ocean crisis and the climate crisis are two sides of the same coin, and we cannot have a healthy ocean without resolving the climate crisis and the greenhouse gas pollution causing it,” said Brad Ack, executive director and chief innovation officer at Ocean Visions, a nonprofit that develops solutions to complex ocean challenges.

“This work will take bold imagination, greatly expanded innovation, and many more people from around the world engaged in this effort collectively. This new Center will give us a framework to build the innovation ecosystem we desperately need,” said Emanuele Di Lorenzo, Ph.D., chairman and co-founder of Ocean Visions.

The ocean has buffered humanity from the worst effects to date of climate disruption by directly absorbing about 30 percent of humanity’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and trapping more than 90 percent of the excess heat in the biosphere caused by CO2 pollution. However, both of these climate-buffering functions have come at a high cost – unraveling marine ecosystems and crippling the ability of the ocean to support the billions of people and other creatures dependent upon it.

The Ocean Visions – UN Decade Collaborative Center will work with an emerging global network of experts and collaborators associated with projects and programs to design, test and deploy viable solutions, such as Ocean Visions’ Global Ecosystem for Ocean Solutions, 1000 Ocean Startups and Stride.

For example, one issue being solved is securing investment in ocean solutions. The Center is helping advance the development of a new open-source tool called The Ocean Impact Navigator, which consists of 30 prioritized key performance indicators (KPIs), grouped in six main impact areas. It captures effects that innovators are driving across ocean health, climate change, human wellbeing and equity.

“This Center signals an urgent, strategic commitment to finding climate solutions,” said Susan Lozier, Ph.D., dean of the College of Sciences and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair at Georgia Tech and President of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). “Ocean health is also human health, and we must find effective ways to protect waters around the planet.”

“At this Center, the best and brightest minds—including our researchers, staff and students—will ensure that our ocean will remain vital for generations to come,” added Tim Lieuwen, Ph.D., executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech who also serves as Regents’ Professor and David S. Lewis Jr. Chair in the Institute’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “The solutions are there, and we look forward to working alongside Georgia Aquarium and Ocean Visions to find them, with the support of the Ocean Decade movement.”

For more information about the Ocean Visions ­­– UN Decade Collaborative Center for Ocean-Climate Solutions, visit the website at oceanvisions.org/undcc/.

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About Ocean Visions – UN Decade Collaborative Center for Ocean-Climate Solutions
The Ocean Visions – UN Decade Collaborative Center for Ocean-Climate Solutions is an innovative partnership between Ocean Visions, Georgia Tech and Georgia Aquarium, with headquarters at the Aquarium in Atlanta. The Center, endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, leads and supports processes to co-design, develop, test, fund and deploy scalable and equitable ocean-based solutions to reduce or reverse the effects of climate change, enhance food security and build climate-resilient marine ecosystems and coastal communities. The Center’s work contributes to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to achieve by 2030 that are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

About the Ocean Decade
Proclaimed in 2017 by the United Nations General Assembly, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) (‘the Ocean Decade’) seeks to stimulate ocean science and knowledge generation to reverse the decline of the state of the ocean system and catalyse new opportunities for sustainable development of this massive marine ecosystem. The vision of the Ocean Decade is ‘the science we need for the ocean we want’. The Ocean Decade provides a convening framework for scientists and stakeholders from diverse sectors to develop the scientific knowledge and the partnerships needed to accelerate and harness advances in ocean science to achieve a better understanding of the ocean system, and deliver science-based solutions to achieve the 2030 Agenda. The UN General Assembly mandated UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) to coordinate the preparations and implementation of the Decade.

About Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a top 10 public research university developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts and sciences degrees. Its nearly 44,000 students representing 50 states and 149 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry and society.

This article was published on: November 1, 2022