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Seabird Sanctuary Back In Black After Rough Patch

Tribune file photo (2005)

The sanctuary’s executive editor, Ralph Heath, helped rescue 56 baby Eastern Brown Pelicans after Hurricane Dennis in 2005.

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By MARK  DOUGLAS | News Channel 8

Published: December 16, 2008

After years of drama, deficits and decline, the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary nearly tripled its charitable income last year, according to a recent filing with the Internal Revenue Service.

"Yeah, we just had some great donors. We're really blessed in that area," said Michelle Simoneau, spokeswoman for the sanctuary, now in its 37th year of rescuing birds from a home base at Indian Shores.

The year sure didn't start out that way.

The state forced the sanctuary to shut down for several days in February 2007 because charity founder Ralph Heath allowed the sanctuary's workers' compensation insurance to lapse.

The charity's office manager and director of marketing, Suzanne Gilmore-Sakal, resigned, and Heath faced a number of code violations for allowing deterioration of the Starkey Road warehouse the charity rents him at a loss.

Months before, in the summer of 2006, Heath also faced criticism for allowing barely clad underage girls to strike suggestive poses on sanctuary property for a subscription Web site.

The modeling sessions took place at a sanctuary-owned beach house and warehouse and at the sanctuary.

And the sanctuary's 70-foot luxury yacht Whisker, a perennial draw on its finances, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service, remains disabled with engine troubles and is slowly decaying in a boat yard.

All told, the IRS records show, the sanctuary was operating in the red, with the deficit reaching $1.58 million.

In 2007, everything changed.

The sanctuary's IRS filing for the year shows income soared from just over $1 million in 2006 to nearly $3 million. The charity ended 2007 with a budget surplus amounting to $1.35 million.

Simoneau initially said Heath, who is out of town, prohibited her from speaking to a reporter about sanctuary finances. But later, she said "there is no mystery" to the surge in donations.

"We've just had a lot of people that are there to help us and bequests and that's something that I and a couple other people have been really specifically working on," Simoneau said.

She would not elaborate on the source of the money. IRS records show some of the income came from the sale in 2007 of the sanctuary's twin-engine airplane.

Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 536-9603.

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