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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE,

BUREAU OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIES, BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY,

Mr. BURTON CLARK,

General Manager, Miami Seaquarium,

Miami, Fla.

Seattle, Wash., March 5, 1962.

DEAR MR. CLARK: Our study designed to observe the reactions of adult migrating salmon to sounds of possible ocean predators is going to be underway early this year.

We are most interested in obtaining a tape-recorded or disc copy of your bottle-nosed dolphin sounds to use in this program. We will be pleased to furnish blank tapes, etc., and will handle all expenses incurred in reproducing your sounds. Please let us know if this can be arranged.

We are also seeking recorded seal sounds and would appreciate any reference you may have on possible sources.

We will relay our experimental results to you upon completion of our observations.

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DEAR MISS CARLIN: We are, indeed, pleased at being listed in your bulletin No. 6-61 which names the Seaquarium among the valuable community resources. We will always try to justify this and maintain the highest standards in our presentation and exhibits.

I note that where you list our motion pictures among the films available you name only "Ocean Showroom". Our film library records indicate that a print of our newest 16mm film, "Creatures of the Sea", was assigned to the Audio-Visual Association February 16th of this year. If you do not, in fact, have this print please let me know so that I can put a tracer on it. If you do I would heartily recommend that you and your staff screen it for your own enjoyment as it is by far the best film we have made.

This film should be listed along with the others as it has achieved outstanding success wherever it has been shown.

Thank you for your complimentary statement about Miami Seaquarium. Yours sincerely,

BURTON CLARK,
General Manager.

SEAQUARIUM

To: Department Heads and Unit Supervisors.

From: Burton Clark.

Subject: Laboratory Research Program.
Date: September 6, 1966.

The Dade County School System has, for the last five or six years, had an activity known as the Laboratory Research Program. A considerable number of agencies around Dade County participate. These include the medical laboratories of the University of Miami School of Medicine, The United States Weather Bureau, The Crime Detection Laboratory of the Dade County Sheriff's Office, and the research and control laboratories of several light industries, including plastic and aluminum manufacturers.

This program is open to only about 70 superior students in the senior classes of Dade County high schools. They must have an excellent scholastic record, and must qualify in several other ways.

During the 1966-67 school year, Miami Seaquarium will be a part of this program. We have two outstanding students assigned to us. They are Miss Janice Malavenda of Miami Senior High School, and Miss Janet Williamson of Palmetto Senior High School. The work they do with us is a part of their school curriculum. Their work will be graded. In the course of their projects, they will be in contact with various people on our Staff. The school system requires that they spend a minimum of six hours each week in field work. I would like to have the utmost in cooperation provided, and I want anything immediately brought to my attention that may tend to interfere with the complete success of this activity.

Participation of Seaquarium in this type of field study is certain to reflect creditably upon all of us. I know that you will share pride in our success, especially when you realize that the Laboratory Research Program is unique, in that it does not exist, especially in such a community-wide manner, in any other American city.

BURTON CLARK.

MIAMI SEAQUARIUM COOPERATIVE PROJECT WITH DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS LABORATORY RESEARCH PROGRAM

(By Warren Zeiller, Curator of Fishes, Miami Seaquarium)

The Laboratory Research Program was designed by the Special Science Department of the Dade County Public Schools for eleventh and twelfth grade students interested in pursuing scientific careers, and has been made possible through the cooperation of the Dade County scientific community.

Carefully selected students arrange their school schedules so that they can report to research laboratories in the county for a minimum of six hours a week. They undertake research projects, write scientific reports and attend seminars. They are required to maintain high levels of academic achievement. Satisfactory work in the laboratory earns a student one unit of high school science credit. Special library cards are issued to the students allowing them the privilege of using all of the University of Miami libraries.

Each of the 17 Dade County Public Senior High Schools may recommend approximately one per cent of its anticipated graduating class for the program, plus alternates. For the 1969-70 school year, 115 students were selected. They worked on their projects in more than 85 participating laboratories— commercial, private, institutional, governmental and university-affiliated.

It is of prime importance, of course, to select students who show a potential for benefitting from the program. Early in the second semester, each school is sent forms for recommending students. To be eligible, a student must have a minimum of a "B" average, and must complete two hours of a laboratory science and two years of high school mathematics. An effort is also made to assess each individual's personality, motivation and aptitudes in making the selection. Personal qualities and character traits that are evaluated include the student's intensity of interest in science and mathematics, inquisitiveness, initiative, self-confidence, emotional stability, persistence, sense of responsibility, manipulative skills, ability to work independently and ability to work and communicate with other people.

In applying for the program, students are asked to write an autobiography in their own handwriting expressing their interests, accomplishments, and aims in the field of sciences. In addition, a parental consent form, high school transcript, standardized test record, recommendations from a science and a mathematics teacher are submitted to the teacher in charge of special assignment.

After a careful study of the comprehensive application, this teacher interviews the student. This is necessary to evaluate personality and temperament before recommending a student to a scientist. The final decision on placement is made after the scientist has interviewed the student.

The Miami Seaquarium has accepted three Laboratory Research Program students annually for the past three years. Four are entered in the 1970–71 program. Each student selects his or her subject with minimal guidance from the curator or staff veterinarian. For all of the students who have participated, the initial difficulty has been to define a research project that is realistic in its scope and within the range of the student's abilities. It has proved helpful to

the student if the project is designed to produce end results that may be useful to the host organization. Though this is not a formal requirement of the program, it stimulates the interest of the student, encourages accuracy and affords pride in successful accomplishment of the project's goals.

Past titles of research projects have included:

"Pompano Mariculture."

"Responses of Enpomacentrus Leucostictus, Lagodon rhomboides and Haemulon sciurus to the toxin of Stoichactis helianthis."

"Correlation of Plant-Animal Plankton in the Natural Habitat and Artificial Environment."

"Color Perception in Bottlenosed Dolphins."

"The Frequency Differentiation of the Tursiops truncatus."

"The Effect of Stress As Created by Captivity on the Behavioral Patterns of Bottlenosed Dolphins."

"An Analysis of the Parental Care of Eggs and Adult Cichlid Fishes." "A Study of Biochemical Factors Pertaining to Water Pollution."

The titles for the 1970-71 projects are:

"Studies into the Behavior of the Killer Whale (Orcinus Orca)."

"The Effects of High Concentrations of Waste on the Growth of Catfish Fingerlings."

"The Effects of Various Pollutants on a Given Species of Salt Water Fish."

"The Effects of Various Pollutants on the Growth Rate of a Given Species of Plankton."

The final papers completed by all the students who have participated in the program at the Seaquarium have been rewarding evidence that their work has been of value. The return of former students now in college is also gratifying. The Laboratory Research Program has aided some students in obtaining scholarships, they have reported, and has also given them the advantage of having completed a technical project on a near-collegiate level in other than a scholastic environment.

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