Jack Rudloe is a writer, naturalist, and environmental activist from Panacea, Florida, United States, who co-founded Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory.

His first work, "Experiments With Sensitive Plants, Cassia Nictitans", was published in Scientific American while he was attending Tallahassee's Leon High School.

[3] In spite of his premature departure from FSU, Rudloe was hired by marine biologist Dexter M. Easton of Harvard University to collect striped burrfish and bat fish.

Rudloe has multiple acknowledgements from scientists about his personal contributions to and support of their research efforts in the marine science literature.

[8][9] Rudloe was involved in early efforts to establish the now successful jellyfish export industry on the East Coast of the US.

[35] During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Rudloe began a project to try to protect ocean invertebrates from contamination.

[36] He published numerous popular articles on environmental topics including several in Sports Illustrated, National Geographic and Audubon.

[37] Rudloe opposed Florida's commercial net fishing ban because he was concerned about the impact on small town fisheries and fishermen placing him at odds with many large environmental groups.

[38] Rudloe began his career as an environmental activist at age 8 by biting the leg of a camp counsellor who was about to kill a turtle with a sledge hammer.

[41] In 1972 Rudloe sued financier Edward Ball to try to force him to remove a fence across the Wakulla River, lost and was almost bankrupted by the resulting legal costs.

[39] This tension reached a crescendo in 2002 with the publication of Alumni Notes by David M. Karl which included an account of persistent rumours at FSU that Rudloe had stolen a "priceless Neopilina specimen" which later appeared for sale in a Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory catalogue and that this was the reason for Rudloe's departure from FSU in his first semester in 1962.