2019 Annual Report

Impacts: Translate & Transfer Science for Public Service

Mote Aquarium is an informal science education center, dedicated to educating and inspiring learners of all ages.

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium was voted Sarasota's Best Children's Attraction and Best Local Nonprofit Organization in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune's 2019 Readers' Choice Awards!

Mote Aquarium is dedicated to sharing Mote’s research and the wonders of the ocean. Since 2003, Mote Aquarium has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), which means the Aquarium is thoroughly reviewed every five years to ensure it has met and will continue to meet ever-rising standards in categories including animal care and welfare, veterinary programs, scientific advancement, conservation, education and safety. Each year, the Aquarium hosts nearly 350,000 visitors from southwest Florida and around the world.

This year Mote debuted its new Aquarium Conservation Lab, formalizing and enhancing a longstanding component of Mote Aquarium: breeding and raising water-dwelling animal species that can be displayed for public education, while lessening the need to collect from wild populations. Mote—which is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)—strives to feature healthy, genetically diverse and sustainably sourced animals to help visitors develop their own passion for marine conservation. Mote also shares animals raised in the Aquarium Conservation Lab with other AZA-accredited aquariums and zoos.

For example, the Aquarium Conservation Lab cultures the neon goby (Elacatinus oceanops). This “cleaner fish” provides services (such as removing dead skin) for other fishes found on healthy coral reefs. Raising them in-house benefits other fishes and habitats in Mote Aquarium.

The Aquarium Conservation Lab has also been raising stone crab larvae for research by Mote’s Fisheries Ecology & Enhancement Program scientists, focused on understanding the threats to this important seafood species.

Mote Aquarium has been holding more than 70 coral colonies that were rescued by the Florida Coral Rescue Team, led by FWC and NOAA Fisheries, before they could contract stony coral tissue loss disease—the major disease outbreak that has swept through Florida’s Coral Reef and multiple Caribbean locations. Mote and many other partners in the Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project, led by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), aim to hold thousands of coral colonies among certified facilities, to preserve native genetic varieties of coral with the ultimate goal of helping to restore reefs in the future.

Mote Aquarium Biologist II Veronica Garcia took her crocodilian-care skills to Argentina this year, assisting with a conservation and research project that is helping the broad-snouted caiman recover from environmental threats. The Argentinian program Proyecto Yacaré, based in Santa Fe, works to study and enhance wild populations of broad-snouted and yacaré caimans.

Garcia, who cares for crocodilians in Mote’s exhibit “The Teeth Beneath: The Wild World of Gators, Crocs and Caimans” along with multiple other resident animals, was awarded a competitive grant from the Florida Association of Zoos & Aquariums (FAZA) to spend two weeks during the past month working with Proyecto Yacaré. She originally connected with the project by meeting participant Lucía Fernandez during the AZA Professional Development Program: Crocodilian Biology and Professional Management.

Mote Aquarium opened a new virtual reality cinema experience, created by Immotion, featuring fully-immersive journeys with 360 degree views, sounds and movement. Mote is committed to applying technology to share exciting, immersive experiences with our visitors.

Photos by: Carlos Matthews, Conor Goulding, Hayley Rutger