Learning about Sea Life on the Carefree Learner

By Amy Bentley

Sea urchin (Blanton Rowan).

There’s no better way to learn about and experience the fascinating marine world than getting out on and in the water, where you can see sea life up close and personal. Having the opportunity to observe or interact with sea critters in their natural habitat is a memorable, eye-opening experience for all ages.

Carefree Learner boat (Amy Bentley).

Florida Gulf Coast beachcombers are fortunate to have a unique boat and educational program that offers such an experience to shelling enthusiasts and students alike. The Carefree Learner, a 41-foot-long single-hull boat, brings people to the wondrous world of mollusks, fish, mangroves, and seagrass in Sarasota Bay in Sarasota, where I live. This special boat is a genuine “floating classroom” and has introduced the marine world to thousands of curious shell enthusiasts, bird watchers, and students—me included!

Sarasota Shell Club visiting Sarasota Bay at low tide (Amy Bentley).

Launched in 1978, the Carefree Learner program is managed by Dr. Megan Ehlers, a longtime marine science teacher at Sarasota High School. She is one of several dedicated teachers who accompany students and adult guests on boat excursions. Carefree Learner offers educational tours in Sarasota Bay and Roberts Bay Rookery in Sarasota for students and community groups like the Sarasota and Englewood shell clubs, the American Littoral Society (a coastal habitat restoration group), and the Audubon Society. In a typical year, Carefree Learner hosts hundreds of free trips into Sarasota Bay with seventh graders from all area middle schools, and over 200 marine science trips with Sarasota High School students. Adult groups and shell club members pay a small fee for excursions. The boat is docked at the Marina Jack marina, which donates a slip on the Sarasota bayfront.

Live tulip shell snail (Amy Bentley). Sea urchin with shell camouflage (Amy Bentley). Horse conch eating a crown conch (Amy Bentley).

Students engage in hands-on activities and science projects. They monitor water quality, sample marine life, conduct population surveys of the Roberts Bay bird rookery, and learn about mangroves and invasive species. The data collected has been used in marine science classes, student research projects, and by various agencies and environmental groups involved with Sarasota Bay. Students get real-life lessons that no classroom can offer.

“It’s a unique opportunity for students to see all the fish and creatures they pull up from the bay, and to see how the sea grass and mangroves are important to the food chain and food web. It’s an important habitat,” Dr. Ehlers says. Students may get off the boat and explore the bay as well as examine their live finds, all of which are returned to the bay, she says.

Sarasota Shell Club with their finds (Amy Bentley).

For shell club members, a trip on Carefree Learner means two to three hours of open exploration in the middle of the bay. Each of the four excursions I have taken on Carefree Learner with the Sarasota Shell Club was an absolute thrill. We leave at the crack of dawn (and sometimes earlier) to catch the negative low tides when a large swath of the bay is exposed and out of water, or the water is only ankle deep. I saw sea urchins, healthy tulips and whelk populations, a variety of crabs and fish, and watched with fascination as live mollusks ate clams or smaller mollusks or as they mated.

Carefree Learner boat (Amy Bentley).

There is nothing like the calming peace and beauty of the bay during a beautiful sunrise when no other boats are around. As a bonus, shell club members have a blast hunting for empty shells to collect (no live shells are taken). We’ve taken home some real beauties, including prized and rare large horse conchs. My husband and I found two big horse conchs and two dozen gorgeous and empty whelks on a trip in December 2024.

Amy and Doug Bentley and the two big horse conchs they found on Sarasota Bay (Amy Bentley).

“The Sarasota Shell Club is a top supporter of the Carefree Learner program, and members helped to build the boat in the 1970s by donating funds and securing the hull,” Dr. Ehlers says. She shared that the boat, which is all wood, is aging and close to reaching the end of its lifespan. The Sarasota County School District is looking to buy a new boat for the program, which would cost $250,000 or more. Our community will surely benefit from the long-term continuation of this valuable program and local shellers are sure to continue their support.

Learn more at www.carefreelearner.com.

Learn more about seashells

Learn more about identifying shells, the history of seashell collecting, great shelling beaches, and the lives of the animals who make the shells we find on the beach. Articles ›

No live shelling: Be sure shells are empty and sand dollars, sea stars, and sea urchins are no longer alive before you bring them home.

This article appeared in Beachcombing Magazine Volume 48 May/June 2025.