SANIBEL, Fla. — The Bailey Matthew's National Shell Museum continues to rebuild nine months after Ian. To keep the education going outside the building, they're partnering up with the city to provide shelling excursions.
Many know Sanibel is known for its sea shells. While Jorden Falker, Associate Director of Education for the museum doesn't sell sea shells by the sea shore, she does know a lot about them.
"Really just educating people about mollusks that live around here," she said. "The beaches are still a great place to learn."
Mollusks are the animals that lived in the shells. Once they die, the shells are empty and show up on shore. It's a learning experience moved to the sand as the museum rebuilds.
"When it comes back it’s going to be a greatly improved exhibit and visitor experience," said Sam Ankerson, the museum's executive director.
Ian did a lot of damage to the museum. He says on the first floor, nearly all of it was destroyed. About 80% of the marine life in the aquariums didn't survive.
"Best practices for aquariums is really to keep the animals as safe as possible and to not relocate them frequently," he explained.
A lot of the local mollusks and around six groups of flamboyant cuttlefish did survive Ian. The cuttlefish were relocated to Tampa and the mollusks went into the Gulf.
"Because of all the water that came in the top because of the roof hole, a good amount of that water was able to seep down on the second floor," Ankerson explained.
The second floor hosts the sea shells and many exhibits. Fortunately, all the shells were fine, Ankerson said. On the third floor, the museum holds shells for research.
"The research collection of shells is really irreplaceable. Its value is that with all the specimens, there’s data associated with each piece," he said. "We have a collection of about 550,000 shells."
Those shells are now waiting to be put back into the exhibits.
"We’re looking at a pretty comprehensive redesign of the exhibits," Ankerson said.
They will have new educational exhibits as part of the revamp. As for the aquariums, they will restock the animals using several resources.
For now, they're going to offer monthly shelling excursions for the community to enjoy as the museum pushes forward to reopen.
"It’s like a treasure from the sea," Ankerson said. "You found something that's very precious and very unique."
The first floor with the marine life is expected to open up by the end of the year. The sea shell exhibit on the second floor will hopefully open again by 2024.
