Marine-mammal rescue facility in Florida heading for foreclosure
A three-acre Key Largo property intended to serve as Marine Mammal Conservancy's permanent base to treat sick or stranded marine mammals could be sold in a foreclosure auction Jan. 8, KeysNet reports
The all-volunteer MMC spearheaded several rescue efforts of dolphins and small whales that drew international news coverage over the past 20 years, most recently after a 2011 mass stranding of pilot whales in the Lower Keys.
Legal advertisements published in The Reporter this month say the former MMC property will be sold at public auction at 11 a.m. Jan. 8 on the front steps of the Monroe County courthouse on Key West's Whitehead Street.
Two men who loaned the nonprofit Marine Mammal Conservancy about $450,000 to purchase the bayside site, on Tarpon Basin near mile marker 102.2, said in court documents that the rescue group failed to make final balloon payments and missed months of interest-only payments.
The Marine Mammal Conservancy (MMC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) IRS designated, all volunteer organization that rescues and rehabilitates dolphins and whales and engages in related research and educational activites. MMC’s primary operating facilities are located in the Upper Keys of Florida. The Corporation is organized and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific, and educational purposes, including but not limited to the research, rescue, rehabilitation, release and/or retirement of marine mammals.