Mote Science Education Aquarium
Mote SEA connects sharks, coral, manatees, sea turtles, fisheries, and hands-on laboratories to research conducted along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Artwork inspired by Robert Rauschenberg
Mote SEA presents marine life as part of an active scientific inquiry rather than spectacle alone. Sharks, corals, manatees, sea turtles, and fisheries provide entry points into research on movement, restoration, red tide, rehabilitation, and Gulf Coast ecosystems, while hands-on laboratories reveal how sampling, tagging, husbandry, and other methods produce knowledge.
Choose one question—perhaps coral recovery, shark movement, turtle care, or fisheries—and trace it across animal habitats and laboratory experiences. Daily programs can supply context that static displays cannot. Before traveling, confirm the current inland aquarium entrance: Mote SEA is a different visitor destination from the historic City Island research campus, which may still appear in older images and map results.
- Identity
- Research institution and aquarium
- Focus
- Gulf and global marine science
- Format
- Timed admission
Quick guide
- Arrival check
- Confirm the new aquarium address before departure.
- Best lens
- Follow one research question across animals and laboratories.
Explore further
- Confirm the campus
- Navigate to the current Mote SEA visitor entrance, not the former aquarium site.
- Follow one question
- Choose coral, sharks, turtles, or fisheries across displays and labs.
- Watch methods
- Sampling, tagging, husbandry, and restoration explain how knowledge is produced.
- Time presentations
- Daily programs add expert context that labels cannot reproduce.
Good to know
Mote SEA and Mote’s City Island research facilities are not the same visitor destination. Old photographs and map results may still point to the former aquarium campus.