Marine Science Center, Marine research facility in Ponce Inlet, Florida, US.

The Marine Science Center is a research facility in Ponce Inlet devoted to caring for injured ocean animals and teaching visitors about marine life. The building contains treatment tanks for sea turtles and seabirds, display tanks showing various species, and work areas for staff conducting research and animal care.

The sources do not record a founding date or the creation of a sea turtle hospital, so the 2002 claim cannot be confirmed. What is documented is the center's present role in Ponce Inlet: it rehabilitates injured seabirds and sea turtles and holds a turtle rehabilitation area among its exhibits. Its collections also include a humpback whale skull and freshwater turtles.

The center's name is tied to its role as a working marine science facility rather than a conventional museum: injured sea turtles and seabirds are brought in for rehabilitation, and visitors can watch the turtle rehabilitation area in use. The 4,876-gallon hexagonal artificial reef aquarium and the stingray touch pool with cownose rays let visitors meet local species directly.

The center sits on Peninsula Drive in Ponce Inlet, with the exhibition hall and the turtle and seabird rehabilitation area under one roof. The stingray touch pool and the 4,876-gallon hexagonal reef aquarium are indoors, so the exhibits can be seen in any weather. Look for the outdoor walkway and the bird observation tower, which are easy to miss from the entrance.

The center's rehabilitation area is not limited to sea turtles: injured seabirds are treated there as well. Visitors can watch both kinds of patients recover on site, alongside freshwater turtles kept in the exhibition. The Italian Wikipedia entry describes the center as a zoological facility and protected area housing aquariums with turtles and humpback whales.