![]() 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. 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. The aquarium presents shark feedings, in which large sharks are trained to go to specific targets for a food reward. The aquarium includes windows into working laboratories and interactive exhibits designed to make science accessible for all ages. 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. 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. 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. ![]() 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. 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. In addition to staff members, the laboratory has about 1,400 volunteers who contribute more than 200,000 volunteer hours to the organization. ![]() 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 partnership of the Chicago Zoological Society the laboratory conducts the world's longest-running study of a wild dolphin population. scientists conducting research through more than 20 research programs on coral health and disease, chemical and physical ecology, phytoplankton ecology, ocean acidification, marine and fresh water 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. Clark was still working as senior scientist, director emerita, and trustee at the laboratory when she died in February 2015.Īs of 2017, the laboratory employed more than 200 staff members, including Ph.D. 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. During March 2010 Eugenie Clark was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame. The laboratory celebrated its 55th anniversary during 2010, and was recognized for its marine science with a resolution in the Florida House and Senate during March 2010.
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