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AQUARIUM EXHIBITS

Exploration Gallery

Discover something epic in our Exploration Gallery. Encounter a giant squid—a real, preserved specimen—take a virtual reality journey alongside majestic marine life and enjoy other interactive science stations.

Today's Research for Tomorrow's Oceans

Preserved Giant Squid

A giant squid mural with a red squid on a black background and letters saying "Molly the mollusk" in the Exploration Gallery at Mote Aquarium
A giant squid mural in the Exploration Gallery at Mote Aquarium

Meet Molly, our 27-foot-long preserved giant squid! Molly was caught accidentally by a deep-sea commercial fishing trawler off the southeastern coast of New Zealand in 1999. Then she was donated to Mote.

At Mote, you can come eye-to-eye with this mysterious species, which happens to have the largest eye in the animal kingdom.

ADD-ON EXPERIENCE

Virtual Reality

Have you ever dreamed of swimming with humpback whales or exploring the sea? Are you a thrill seeker looking to encounter huge sharks or to take an impossibly steep, white-knuckle ride?

Dive into a whole new world with one of our epic virtual reality (VR) adventures featuring 360-degree views, sound and movement.

Hours & Cost

The VR experience, located in Mote’s Exploration Gallery, is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. every day and costs $8 per person per experience ($6 for Mote Members). Pay on site.

Choose Your VR Adventure!

Our VR experiences, brought to you by Immotion, include:

  • Swimming with humpbacks: Explore the waters of the Bahamas while searching for a female humpback whale and her newly born calf.
  • Shark Dive: Travel with us as we try to find Tiger Beach – a mythic underwater strip where some of the world’s largest sharks, including apex predator tiger sharks, are said to gather.
  • Legend of Lusca: Dive into an amazing sub-sea world and get close to creatures that inhabit its clear waters.
  • The Tower: Taking you higher than any theme park dares, this VR coaster brings you to the top of the tallest skyscraper and back down, in an intense, white-knuckle ride.

Guests enjoy the virtual reality experience at Mote by sitting in glowing VR pods and wearing VR headsets

Interactive Science Stations

2115: The Future of our Coral Reefs

Did you know that many human activities release carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere? The oceans absorb this excess carbon dioxide, which leads to harmful ocean acidification. This interactive exploration takes us to the year 2115 and shows us what our coral reefs might look like if ocean acidification continues.

The game 2115: The Future of Coral reefs, an arcade-style simulator showing coral reefs' future if ocean acidification projections come true
The game 2115: The Future of Coral reefs, an arcade-style simulator showing coral reefs’ future if ocean acidification projections come true

Interactive Earth

Come explore your planet Earth with NOAA’s SOSx Technology. Science On a Sphere® (SOS) is a global display system that helps illustrate earth system science to people of all ages. See atmospheric storms, climate change and ocean temperature imagery animated in this curious and captivating display.

NOAA's Science On a Sphere® (SOS) interface in Mote's Exploration Gallery, a global display system that helps illustrate earth system science to people of all ages
NOAA’s Science On a Sphere® (SOS) interface in Mote’s Exploration Gallery, a global display system that helps illustrate earth system science to people of all ages