The queen angel fish, Holocanthus cilaris , is just one of the nearly 20 species of fish in the Smithsonian Marine Ecosystems Exhibit’s 3000-gallon Coral Reef Ecosystem, one of six model ecosystems on public display.
Dr. Mary Rice had been working as a scientist with the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., for just a few years when the legendary research organization sent her to Fort Pierce on a field assignment in the early ’70s. It was an assignment that is still ongoing today.
“I stayed in a trailer for nine years,” recalls Rice. “Finally I said, ‘They’ve let me stay here this long, I might as well buy a house!’”
Rice spent 21 years as director of the Smithsonian Marine Station, a satellite laboratory and research center located in St. Lucie County since 1972. She is now officially retired, but spends her days at the station as an emeritus research scientist, “continuing the research I was doing, but never had time to finish.”
Over the years, the research conducted by the staff and visiting scientists at the Fort Pierce site has been published in six books and more than 650 scientific journals. Over 100 scientists each year visit the facility studying everything from fungi growth on mangroves to rock-boring sea urchins.
Read the entire article in the February 2007 issue
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