World-Renowned Conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall To Speak In Tampa

TAMPA, FL — On the heels of being named the eighth best aquarium in the country in USA Today's 10Best, The Florida Aquarium is also getting national attention as it prepares to host world-renowned conservationist and United Nations Messenger of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall.

Goodall, who is celebrating her 89th birthday, will visit The Florida Aquarium, 701 Channelside Drive, Tampa, on Tuesday, March 28, for an intimate evening that includes vegetarian and vegan foods, a question-and-answer session with Goodall and an auction including items from the Jane Goodall Institute.

She will then be at the Tampa Theatre on Wednesday, March 29 at 7 p.m. for a sold-out lecture of students and educators titled "Growing a Compassionate & Sustainable Future for All: An Evening with Dr. Goodall."

Students will win tickets by entering a short essay contest (250 words) on “what you can and will do to make the world better for people, other animals and the environment.” Responses will be read by staff at the Jane Goodall Institute, who will pick the 50 winners.

An icon in the scientific, animal welfare, humanitarian, and environmental landscape for
over 60 years, Goodall is most well-known for her groundbreaking insights and observations of wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. Her formal observations of chimpanzee tool-use, compassion, mother-infant bonds and more, redefined human's understanding of the rest of the animal kingdom and itself.

Emerging from the forest a scientist and becoming an activist in the late 1980s, Goodall
has been traveling the world sharing her reasons for hope and why everyone must act now to build a better tomorrow.

Goodall is also in Tampa to grow the power of youth. Tampa is the future home of a Roots & Shoots USA Basecamp, an emerging model in the U.S. to support local, grassroots efforts to grow and nurture young conservationists and turns ideas into community service projects and inspire others to join the movement.

Through this program for young people, Roots & Shoots is active in more than 60 countries around the world.

Those interested in joining or supporting the Tampa Roots & Shoots Basecamp can contact Mary Ford, senior director of Roots & Shoots of the Jane Goodall Institute USA at rootsandshoots@janegoodall.org.

Today, Goodall continues to connect with worldwide audiences, despite the challenges of the pandemic, through "Virtual Jane," including remote lectures, recordings and the podcast, the “Jane Goodall Hopecast.”

In 2021, Goodall was the recipient of the Templeton Prize, was featured on the cover of
TIME, and her newest book, "The Book of Hope" was published.

This spring marks her first full, in-person tour since 2019.

All proceeds from the event will benefit the Jane Goodall Institute’s mission to understand and protect chimpanzees, other apes and their habitats, and empower people to help conserve the environment.

The Jane Goodall Institute is a global, community-centered conservation organization founded in 1977 that advances the vision and work of Goodall in its 25 chapters around the world. The institute uses research, community-led conservation, animal welfare standards and the use of science and technology to inspire hope and transform it into action.

"As you all know, our world is in trouble environmentally. We are plundering the finite natural resources of our beautiful planet in a way that is not sustainable and we are polluting air, earth and water," said Goodall on her website. "We are destroying forests and other ecosystems, which is one of the main reasons for the alarming rate of extinction of plant and animal species."

It's a topic that goes hand in hand with the nonprofit aquarium's mission of rescuing and rehabilitating sick and injured marine animals and restoring Florida's sea turtle and coral populations.

In 2019, the aquarium opened its state-of-the-art Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center in Apollo Beach where, each year, it cares for dozens of sea turtles affected by cold-stunning, illness and injury.

In addition, the aquarium has conducted ground-breaking research that led to the first successful spawning of endangered Atlantic coral in a laboratory. This groundbreaking scientific development offers new hope for the restoration of the Florida Reef Tract and coral reefs around the world that are facing extinction.

Additionally, The Florida Aquarium partnered with Biscayne National Park to populate the waters around the park with mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata), an important reef-building species that has suffered high mortality in recent years from the stony coral tissue loss disease.

And researchers at the aquarium, the University of Florida and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission successfully reared and released nearly 200 long-spined sea urchins (Diadema antillarum) off the coast of Florida, a species that feeds on the fleshy algae on reefs that is fueled by pollution and can suffocate healthy coral reefs.

The aquarium also relocated 560 corals to an offshore reef site near Long Key, including boulder brain (Colpophyllia natans), grooved brain (Diploria labyrinthiformis), symmetrical brain (Pseudodiploria strigosa) and spiny flower (Mussa angulosa) corals that were bred and raised at The Florida Aquarium’s Center for Conservation, as part of the aquarium's effort to save the Florida Reef Tract, the third largest barrier reef in the world, stretching 360 miles along the southeast Florida coast.

Researchers at the aquarium even devised a biodegradable, low-cost tent to protect baby corals from predators using simple humble bamboo barbecue skewers.

For more information about the event at The Florida Aquarium and to purchase tickets, click here.