Author: Sam Trail
Date: January 21, 2026
As part of our mission statement, the Florida Atlantic Marine Lab strives to conduct and share science, spark curiosity, and meet the need for additional formal and informal education. Our cross-disciplinary Glenn W. & Cornelia T. Bailey Marine SEA (Science, Education, and the Arts) Scholars Program fosters that vision, and tracks our progress towards these goals every year. Here is a snapshot of the meaningful interactions we made throughout our community this year. One may say – we sea-zed the day!
42 Outreach events. From conferences to classrooms, our SEA Scholars attended a record number of outreach events in 2025. The audiences of these events ranged from small classes of 10-15 students, to large community conservation events with over 16,000 attendees! No matter the size of the event, through these purposeful and personal interactions, the SEA Scholars reached our ever-expanding community in 2025!
3,400 followers and subscribers. The size of our audience grew on all platforms this year! Through our newsletter and social media platforms, the Florida Atlantic Marine Science Lab audience expanded far beyond our local community. With over 200 subscribers to our monthly newsletter and nearly 3,200 followers on Facebook and Instagram, we created a large and growing digital footprint. Our scientists were in action filming bite-size videos to capture the audience’s attention to relay the importance of research and conservation. Our top sea turtle research video received 67,000 views!
7,400 Marine Lab active website users. Through our website, visitors can access information on groundbreaking research, up-to-date media coverage, and virtual resources for formal and informal settings. The active users of our virtual resources page more than doubled between 2024 and 2025! If you haven’t already, please check out our website to see all the Marine Lab has to offer: https://biology.fau.edu/marine-lab/
Over 262,000 visitors. From the bird’s-eye-view of our Marine Lab Visitors’ Gallery, guests were able to observe science in action in 2025! As visitors of all ages pass through the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex, students, faculty, and staff working in our wet lab and in the visitors’ gallery are always ready to answer your questions about our research. No two days are the same in the lab, so pay us a visit to see what we are up to today!
5-star ratings. In addition to educating our broader community, we take great pride in expanding the knowledge and skillsets of our SEA Scholar Program students each semester. Building on previous years, nearly all students that completed the program gave it a 5-star review with over 90% of participants saying they “strongly agree” that they have gained effective experience in both scientific studies and science communication.
We are already full speed ahead in 2026 with four outreach events under our belt and two more coming up in February! Check out these upcoming events on our website.
