The Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium is getting ready to open its new educational campus.
According to a release, the new Mote Science Education Aquarium (SEA) will open to the public on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
This comes after Mote temporarily closed its doors in July to help the animals adapt to their new homes and to allow the team to focus on the transition.
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The 12-acre campus is at Sarasota's Nathan Benderson Park. The 146,000-square-foot facility will help provide informal science education and ocean literacy to a large, more diverse audience from around the world.
The facility features three state-of-the-art STEM teaching labs focused on subjects like biomedical, microbiology and immunology, ocean engineering and more. These will provide hands-on learning to more than 70,000 K-12 students annually from Sarasota and Manatee county schools and other schools in nearby counties — free of charge.
This is just a glass window away from the five STEM workforce training labs offering professional experience alongside Mote scientists. This is part of an array of high school, undergraduate and graduate research experiences in topics like aquaculture and fisheries.
Michael P. Crosby, Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium president and CEO, said this campus will change the way visitors think about oceans, conservation and sustainable use.
“Mote SEA is much more than just an aquarium; it stands at the intersection of paradigm-changing research, science education, and community engagement,” Crosby said.
WUSF previously reported how once SEA is open, Mote is focusing on renovating its roughly 60,000-square-foot original location on City Island in Sarasota. There's not currently a timeline for that reopening.
Mote has nine campuses across Florida. Only one — the Mote Aquaculture Research Park — is not open to the public because it is used mostly for programming and logistical work.
If you want to be part of Mote SEA's exclusive grand opening event or reserve tickets for general admission after the opening, visit Mote's website.
WUSF's Lily Belcher contributed to this story.
