Respect the Saw: International Sawfish Day 2020

Celebrate International Sawfish Day on Oct. 17, 2020 by learning more about these "flat sharks" and how you can help them! Visit Mote Aquarium from 11-2 on Oct. 17 for some cool giveaways!

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Podcast: Why Sawfish Day and #BlackinMarineScience week should be on your calendar

Today’s episode makes us twice as happy because we have two excellent topics in store! Our guest, Jasmin Graham, has studied some of the most unusual-looking, endangered animals in the sea—sawfish, aka “danger snoots”—and she’s now advancing a critical mission: helping marine science become a more diverse field by increasing its accessibility to underrepresented minority students and researchers. Jasmin serves as Project Coordinator of MarSci-LACE (Marine Science Laboratory Alliance Center of Excellence), a multi-partner effort led by Mote and supported by a National Science Foundation grant as part of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. Today, she helps hosts Joe and Hayley get ready and get excited for International Sawfish Day (Oct. 17) and #BlackInMarineScience week (Nov. 29-Dec. 5) celebrated with Mote’s Empowerment Panel event! In addition to sharing her work at Mote, Jasmin tells us about her leadership of the organization Minorities in Shark Science.  

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A busy season at Mote’s Hatchling Hospital

Rescued sea turtle hatchlings have received plenty of TLC in Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium’s Hatchling Hospital during summer and early fall 2020. As September drew to a close, Mote staff reported that 1,400 of these baby sea turtles have completed their hospital stay and returned to the ocean.

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Podcast: The bizarre lives of deep-dwelling microbes

Imagine a hole in the ocean floor with a bottom stretching to 350 feet deep, or deeper. That’s the type of environment Mote scientists and colleagues are exploring as they visit the Gulf of Mexico’s blue holes—underwater caves, springs and sinkholes. In this episode, one of our partnering scientists shares what lives in the depths of a blue hole. Dr. Nastassia Patin, Postdoctoral Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies from University of Miami/NOAA, just published a paper on the strange microscopic life found in one of these deep, dark, chilly, acidified and low-oxygen environments: the blue hole known as AJ Hole. When this episode was recorded, Dr. Patin was visiting Mote for yet another sampling expedition to explore the tiny life forms in an even deeper blue hole called “Green Banana.” Join Dr. Patin and podcast hosts Joe and Hayley to discover the “alien” lifestyles of microbes in these deep environments, how blue hole research relates to our lives, and which fun fact blew Joe’s mind…

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Sarasota-Manatee, our marine life needs you

Residents of Sarasota and Manatee counties, our marine life needs you! Read the guest editorial originally posted in the August 25, 2020 edition of the Sarasota-Herald Tribune. 

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