A TRIBUTE TO JIMMY BUFFETT

Jimmy Buffett at Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in 2011 with a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle.

Editor, The Sun:

We are saddened by the death of Jimmy Buffett and grateful for the support and encouragement that he has given us over the years. In 2011 he visited our aquarium and we spent a delightful day feeding sharks and sea turtles. As we watched him happily picking up horseshoe crabs and squirting sea squirts in our touch tanks, it quickly became clear that he had a great depth of knowledge of marine life. It came from a lifetime of fishing and hanging out in the mangroves. His songs often mention jellyfish, crabs, and oysters. This year, University of Miami scientists named a new species of marine isopod discovered in the Florida Keys after him, Gnathia jimmybuffetti.
Jimmy kept a copy of my 1978 book, “The Living Dock,” published by Alfred A. Knopf aboard his yacht. He gave us a jacket quote for our latest book, “Shrimp: The Endless Quest for Pink Gold,” published by FT Press in 2010. He wrote: “Most humans are said to be composed 90% of water, but for those of us who grew up on the Gulf of Mexico, I think that other 10% must be shrimp. The Rudloes leave the Living Dock behind for a voyage to the land of Pink Crustaceans, and I for one am happy to be aboard for that voyage.”
He cared deeply for the environment, and disdained the developers who were destroying it. Through his Singing For Change Foundation he donated funds to renovate our Mother Ocean Room where we kept octopuses, and helped us renovate our traveling SeaMobile trailer. At his request we brought the SeaMobile to his Feb. 28, 2012 concert at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center in Tallahassee. Two months later when Anne Rudloe passed away, he wrote: “Anne left her mark on the world and more particularly our beloved Gulf. That is really all we can do in this short time on this blue marble, is try and leave it a little better off than it was when we got here. She did that.”
And so did Jimmy Buffett.

Jack Rudloe
Gulf Specimen Marine Lab