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Florida Keys Volunteers for Mote Marine Laboratory assist Mote staff with research or outreach and gain hands-on experience and knowledge. See below for our current opportunities in Key Largo, Islamorada and Summerland Key.
Mote scientists cultivate diverse corals for restoration and research in our land-based coral nurseries. At each of our Keys facilities, our land based restoration program maintains and cares for thousands of coral fragments located in our raceways. Day-to-day duties include generating tags for our various coral species, making/repairing racks and/or trees which hold our coral plugs, cleaning and siphoning raceways, and transferring corals to different raceways. If an individual has previous husbandry experience, cleaning coral plugs to rid them of algae and pests is also available. Observing coral health and training in Mote’s coral microfragmentation process are also long-term volunteer possibilities!
All duties are performed outdoors; volunteers must be willing to work in our South Florida heat!
Mote’s Grazers Lab is primarily looking at the herbivorous Caribbean King Crabs and their ability to remove algae from degraded reefs as well as developing the best methods for culturing them. Volunteering with this team will involve helping with everyday duties like cleaning and siphoning raceways and pumps, feeding, and counting out the hundreds and thousands of crabs that are hatched on site. For long term volunteers, there are also opportunities to help tag the new incoming crabs and record their information, collect algae for them to eat, and assist in conducting experiments when they occur!
Volunteer with our coral reproduction team and learn more about Mote’s breeding efforts for corals. As coral reefs are severely threatened, Mote staff focus heavily on reproduction in a lab setting and our nurseries. Volunteering with this team includes land-based duties such as coral husbandry tasks and providing care and maintenance to our coral recruits and assisting with basic aquaculture duties. This is only a long-term volunteer opportunity and desired skills in this lab include: special attention to detail, ultimate organization, and steady hands.
Mote engages with our community to share and promote our marine science and conservation work. Primary duties for outreach volunteers will be leading weekly public tours of Mote’s land-based coral nurseries. Outreach volunteers may also assist at Mote’s Ocean Fest event or other community events where Mote is a participant. Event-based duties include assisting with setup and breakdown, manning booths for tickets and/or merchandise, or managing a Mote public education booth.
Duties are performed primarily outdoors; volunteers must be willing to work in our South Florida heat!
Join our Education department in the Keys and gain more knowledge and experience while educating the younger generation! Volunteer opportunities with this program include assisting in various educational outreach programs that are geared towards elementary and middle school students.
The coral reef ecosystems program studies the effect of coral restoration on the rest of the reef community. Using a technique called Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry and Large Area Imaging, the team creates cohesive, interactive 2D and 3D site representations of research and outplant sites. These are “virtually surveyed,” allowing a greater depth and breadth of data extraction than in water surveys on SCUBA. Volunteers with this team must be extremely computer savvy and ideally has command line experience as it will involve aiding in the data processing, rendering and digital surveying of restoration and research sites.
Opportunities to volunteer in Mote’s Ocean Acidification Lab are available based on specific circumstances. Contact us for more information.
Opportunities to volunteer in Mote’s Coral Health & Disease Lab are available based on specific circumstances. Contact us for more information.
Have additional questions? Reach out to our Office of Volunteer Resources! The best way to get a hold of us is via email (volcoordinator@mote.org). You can also call our office at (941) 388-4441, ext. 852.
