Mote Marine Laboratory

This article uses bare URLs, which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot. Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style. Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting, such as reFill (documentation) and Citation bot (documentation).(September 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this message )

This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  "Mote Marine Laboratory"  –  news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this message )

Mote Marine Laboratory
Official logo
27°19′58.5″N82°34′37.7″W / 27.332917°N 82.577139°W / 27.332917; -82.577139
Date opened	1955;69 years ago (1955)
Location	Sarasota, Florida
Land area	10.5 acres (4.2 ha)
Annual visitors	333,661 (2017) [1]
Memberships	AZA [2]
Website	www.mote.org

Mote Marine Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit, marine research organization based on City Island in Sarasota, Florida, with additional campuses in eastern Sarasota County, Boca Grande, Florida, and the Florida Keys. Founded in 1955 by Eugenie Clark in Placida, Florida, it was known as the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory until 1967. The laboratory aims to advance marine science and education, supporting conservation and sustainable use of marine resources. A public aquarium and associated education program interpret its research for the public.

Contents

• History
• Mote Aquarium
• Education
• Library
• Commercial programs
• Gallery of displays
• See also
• References
• External links

History

The laboratory, founded by Eugenie Clark in 1955 in Placida, Florida, was known as Cape Haze Marine Laboratory until its 1967 renaming in honor of major benefactors of the laboratory William R. Mote, his wife Lenore, and his sister, Betty Mote Rose. Early research was focused on sharks and other fishes. Since 1960, it has been based in Sarasota, Florida, and has been located on City Island since 1978. ^[3]

The laboratory celebrated its 55th anniversary in 2010 and was recognized for its marine science with a resolution in the Florida House and Senate during March 2010. In March 2010, Eugenie Clark was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame. When the laboratory celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2015, it unveiled its first multi-year, comprehensive fundraising effort, Oceans of Opportunity: the Campaign for Mote Marine Laboratory. ^[4] Clark was still working as senior scientist, director emerita, and trustee at the laboratory when she died in February 2015. ^[5]

As of 2017, the laboratory employed more than 200 staff members, including Ph.D. scientists conducting research through more than 20 research programs on coral health and disease, chemical and physical ecology, phytoplankton ecology, ocean acidification, marine, and freshwater aquaculture, fisheries habitat ecology, stranding investigations, ecotoxicology, sharks and rays conservation research, fisheries ecology and enhancement, coral reef monitoring and assessment, coral reef restoration, environmental health, ocean technology, marine immunology, benthic ecology, marine biomedical research, environmental forensics, sea turtle conservation and research, manatee research, and dolphin research. ^{[6] [7]} In partnership of the Chicago Zoological Society ^[8] the laboratory conducts the world's longest-running study of a wild dolphin population. ^[9]

Since 1978, the laboratory has expanded to include a 10.5-acre (4.2 ha) campus in Sarasota, the Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration on Summerland Key, a public exhibit in Key West, a Boca Grande outreach office, and the Mote Aquaculture Research Park in eastern Sarasota County. In addition to staff members, the laboratory has about 1,000 volunteers. ^[10]

Mote Aquarium

The aquarium is the public outreach arm of the laboratory, displaying more than 100 marine species with a focus on species and ecosystems studied by staff scientists. The aquarium is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits qualified facilities based on a rigorous application and inspection process focusing on animal care, conservation, and science, facilities, and more. ^[2]

The aquarium opened in 1980 on City Island in Sarasota Bay to display sharks, manatees, sea turtles, seahorses, rays, skates, and invertebrates including cuttlefish, octopuses, sea jellies, anemones, and corals. Special exhibits have included "Otters and Their Waters" and "The Teeth Beneath: The Wild World of Gators, Crocs, and Caimans" that features animals found in the watershed (land that drains into the ocean and other waterbodies), including North American river otters, American alligators, and spectacled caimans. A special exhibit "Oh Baby! Life Cycles of the Seas" deals with marine courtship and reproduction and features the offspring of multiple species and their early-life survival challenges through an interactive game, a baby shark touch tank, and other features. ^[11] The aquarium includes windows into working laboratories and interactive exhibits designed to make science accessible for all ages.^{[ citation needed ]}

The aquarium presents shark feedings, in which large sharks are trained to go to specific targets for a food reward. Other resident animals, such as sea turtles and river otters, are fed and trained similarly during sessions designed to enhance their care and provide healthy stimulation. All narrated training and feeding sessions are designed specifically for animal care, and in some cases, to allow behavioral research intended to inform conservation of wild populations.^{[ citation needed ]}

Until 2011, Harley, the last recorded spinner dolphin in captivity in the United States lived at Mote Aquarium. ^[12]

Education

The education, aquarium, and outreach division of the laboratory includes a marine science school and public programs for all ages. The laboratory also offers internships, summer camps, school visits, field trips, on-demand learning experiences, an annual special lecture series featuring staff scientists and other marine experts, and a digital-learning program called SeaTrek.TV, which connects staff educators to students and other audiences via live videoconferencing, often using common computer programs and service, making scientific lessons accessible to classrooms across the U.S. and abroad. ^[13] The laboratory also provides enhanced adult learning programs such as professional development workshops for teachers, ^[14] and multiple aquarium tanks are maintained at other southwest Florida facilities, including at the Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport.^{[ citation needed ]}

Library

A library has existed at the laboratory since its beginning in Cape Haze. ^[15]

For more than 35 years The Arthur Vining Davis Library and Archives has been providing resources, reference materials, and research publications at the laboratory. Its collections are maintained for the support of marine and environmental research and education. In addition to print and archival collections, the library maintains searchable online, open-access institutional repositories of staff publications, institutional papers, and items from historical collections. The library and archives are open to the public for study and exploration, however, appointments may be required. ^[16]

The library is a member of the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC), an association of individuals and organizations interested in library and information science, especially as these are applied to the recording, retrieval, and dissemination of knowledge and information in all aspects of aquatic and marine sciences and their allied disciplines. ^[17]

Commercial programs

From 2006 to 2014, the laboratory-produced "Mote caviar" (Siberian malossol osetra) from Siberian sturgeon at Mote Aquaculture Research Park in eastern Sarasota County as part of a demonstration of sustainable eco-sensitive aquaculture. ^[18] On November 24, 2014, the caviar production operation was sold to Southeast Venture Holdings, LLC (Seven Holdings). ^[19] Meanwhile, the laboratory continued to own the entire 200-acre research park and continued its sustainable aquaculture and aquaponics research, emphasizing a range of goals from eco-friendly food production to restocking wild fish populations. In early 2017, Seven Holdings concluded the sturgeon program, for financial reasons.^{[ citation needed ]}

Staff at the park continue research programs investigating marine aquaponics (growing fish and salt-tolerant "sea vegetables" in prototype greenhouses), examining the potential for aquaculture production of the Gulf of Mexico stock of almaco jack, examining the effects of probiotic supplements on the survival of larval fish, and other projects designed to inform and contribute to the growth of sustainable, commercial aquaculture.^{[ citation needed ]}

Gallery of displays

• 
  Manatee
• 
  Seahorses
• 
  Stone fish
• 
  "Edgar", a blind loggerhead sea turtle, who died January 2011

See also

• Robert Hueter

Related Research Articles

The National Aquarium – also known as National Aquarium in Baltimore and formerly known as Baltimore Aquarium – is a non-profit public aquarium located at 501 East Pratt Street on Pier 3 in the Inner Harbor area of downtown Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. Constructed during a period of urban renewal in Baltimore, the aquarium opened on August 8, 1981. The aquarium has an annual attendance of 1.5 million visitors and is the largest tourism attraction in the State of Maryland. The aquarium holds more than 2,200,000 US gallons (8,300,000 L) of water, and has more than 17,000 specimens representing over 750 species. The National Aquarium's mission is to inspire conservation of the world's aquatic treasures. The aquarium's stated vision is to confront pressing issues facing global aquatic habitats through pioneering science, conservation, and educational programming.

Georgia Aquarium is a public aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The aquarium exhibits hundreds of species and thousands of animals across its seven major galleries, all of which reside in more than 11 million US gallons (42,000 m³) of water. It was the largest aquarium in the world from its opening in 2005 until 2012 when it was surpassed by the S.E.A. Aquarium in Singapore and the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China; the Georgia Aquarium remains the largest aquarium in the United States and the sixth largest in the world.

The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, formerly known as the Okinawa Ocean Expo Aquarium, is a public aquarium located within the Ocean Expo Park in Okinawa, Japan. The aquarium's Kuroshio sea tank was the largest aquarium tank in the world until it was surpassed by the Georgia Aquarium in 2005.

The New England Aquarium is a nonprofit organization located in Boston, Massachusetts. The species exhibited include harbor and northern fur seals, California sea lions, African and southern rockhopper penguins, giant Pacific octopuses, weedy seadragons, and thousands of saltwater and freshwater fishes. In addition to the main aquarium building, attractions at Central Wharf include the Simons Theatre and the New England Aquarium Whale Watch. More than 1.3 million guests visited the aquarium each year prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies ("IMMS") is a research organization located in Gulfport, Mississippi, and dedicated to education, conservation, and research on marine mammals in the wild and in captivity. It was founded in 1984 as a research organization funded by Marine Life Oceanarium and its sister company Marine Animal Productions and recognized as a non-profit 501c(3) in 1995. The director since its founding has been Dr. Mobashir A. (Moby) Solangi. It has been an active participant of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program since its inception.

Eugenie Clark, popularly known as The Shark Lady, was an American ichthyologist known for both her research on shark behavior and her study of fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. Clark was a pioneer in the field of scuba diving for research purposes. In addition to being regarded as an authority in marine biology, Clark was popularly recognized and used her fame to promote marine conservation.

The Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA) is a privately owned aquarium in Hillarys, Western Australia. Located approximately 20 km (12 mi) north-west of Perth City, it is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike.

The Florida Aquarium is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, publicly operated institution located in downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It is a large scale, 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m²) aquarium and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. This means they are a leader in conservation and education, supporting programs for wildlife and having a strong educational component in the forms of summer camps, school trips, etc. The facility is home to more than 7,000 aquatic plants and animals from Florida and all over the world. The facility is located in the Channel District of Downtown Tampa. The Florida Aquarium opened in March 1995 as a privately funded entity and became a public-private partnership when the city of Tampa assumed responsibility for its debt in 1999. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed the Florida Aquarium on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.

The Texas State Aquarium is a nonprofit aquarium located in Corpus Christi, Texas, United States. The aquarium aims to promote environmental conservation and rehabilitation of the wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico and has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) since 1995. Currently the largest aquarium in Texas and also one of the largest aquaria in the United States.

The Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography is a natural science college at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. The college offers programs in subjects like biology and mathematics and conducts oceanographical research.

The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, formerly known as the Virginia Marine Science Museum, is an aquarium and marine science museum located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, just south of Rudee Inlet. The exhibits at the museum are contained in over 800,000 US gallons (3,028,000 L) of fresh and saltwater displays.

The National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium is the most notable museum and research institution for marine biology in Taiwan, which located in Checheng Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan.

This page is a list of fishing topics.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and aquarium in Clearwater, Florida. It is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of sick and injured marine animals, public education, conservation, and research.

Coral aquaculture, also known as coral farming or coral gardening, is the cultivation of corals for commercial purposes or coral reef restoration. Aquaculture is showing promise as a tool for restoring coral reefs, which are dying off around the world. The process protects young corals while they are most at risk of dying. Small corals are propagated in nurseries and then replanted on the reef.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fisheries:

Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory (GSML) is an independent not-for-profit marine research and education organization and public aquarium in Panacea, Florida, United States.

Eilat's Coral World Underwater Observatory is a public aquarium, park and conservation center located in Eilat, Israel. It is the biggest public aquarium in Israel, and it hosts over 800 species. It was founded in 1974 and was the first of its kind. The park and aquarium is located to the south of Eilat's Coral Beach nature reserve.

Robert Edward Hueter is an American marine biologist and Senior Scientist Emeritus at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. Previously, he was Director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote. He primarily studies sharks and has authored over 200 papers related to marine biology.

The Acuario de Veracruz is a public aquarium located in the city of Veracruz. It is the biggest aquarium in Mexico and Latin America by water volume, with 7 million liters of water.

References

External links

• Media related to Mote Marine Laboratory at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website