JL Scott Marine Education Aquarium: An Adventure of the Sea
The Gulf Coast of Mississippi is a seaboard of attractions for the young and adventurer at heart. Neighbor to the famous Isle of Capri Resort and Casino is the JL Scott Marine Education Aquarium. This educational oceanographic facility, which has existed since 1972, consists of more than 32,000 square feet. The University of Southern Mississippi manages the JL Scott Marine Education Aquarium.
The JL Scott Marine Education Aquarium features one large tank that is surrounded by four separate areas that contain smaller, but still impressive-size aquariums. The largest tank (about 42,000 gallons), called the Gulf of Mexico, is home to some of the area's largest marine life. The smaller tanks contain fish and other underwater life forms from smaller bodies of water, such as lakes and rivers. The aquarium design (one large tank surrounded by smaller ones) functions as an educational tool for demonstrating how fresh water from the Gulf follows a specific process to travel to smaller saltwater environments. Other attractions at the JL Scott Marine Education Aquarium include art and aquatic exhibits and unique collections of shells.
Summer camps, such as the Project Marine Discovery's Sea Camp, are a major offering of the JL Scott Marine Education Aquarium. These camps are designed to promote a general knowledge and awareness of marine life in children from Pre-K to Middle School age. Constructed as a separate campus for the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, there is a large auditorium that is often used for educational meetings and presentations with a sizeable audience.
Although the facility was completed destroyed in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina, a rebuilding effort is near complete.
