One of the most incredible new projects on our radar is the new Mote Science Education Aquarium (Mote SEA) currently in development and planned for Sarasota, FL.

The new 110,000 square foot marine science education aquarium will be built on 12 acres on the northern end of Nathan Benderson Park. The construction of the facility is expected to have a $280 million economic impact on the city of Sarasota.

About Mote Marine & The New SEA Facility

Mote Marine Laboratory is a non-profit marine research organization centered on City Island in Sarasota, Florida, with other sites in eastern Sarasota County, Boca Grande, and the Florida Keys. Originally founded in Placida, Florida, the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory was established in 1955 by Eugenie Clark. It was recognized as such until 1967 when it was renamed in honor of major benefactor, William R. Mote and the contributions he and his family had made.

The laboratory’s mission is to enhance marine science and education while also promoting marine conservation and sustainability. For the general public, study is interpreted through a public aquarium and related education programs.

Mote SEA Breaks Ground

The new Mote SEA facility which broke ground in October of 2020 and is projected to open in early 2023, is part of a $130 million dollar facility planned for the region. More than 65,000 children from Sarasota and Manatee counties will benefit from Mote SEA’s interactive state-of-the-art STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) teaching labs and free educational programming. Mote SEA will be used to support their expanding scientific and technology programs, and expanded research facilities.

We were excited to learn more about the project and interviewed Michael Moore and Dan Bebak at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium along with Vito Mariano, President of Basecrete Technologies who has been consulting on the waterproofing aspects of the project.

Science Education Aquarium a Boon For Sarasota Community

“We are first and foremost a Marine research science laboratory,” said Dan Bebak, V.P. and Director of Aquarium at Mote Marine Laboratory, “the interest in the aquarium concept grew out of William R. Mote desire and some scientists at the time, to talk to the public about the research that the laboratory was doing and put a public face on our research.”

The aquarium portion of the currently facility displays more than 100 marine species including sharks, manatees, sea turtles, seahorses, rays, skates, and invertebrates including cuttlefish, octopuses, sea jellies, anemones, and corals. Other resident animals, such as sea turtles and river otters which are cared for by the trained staff and volunteers of the facility.

Emphasis on STEM and Workforce Development

“The impetetus for the new Science Education Aquarium is tied to the growth of research. In our City Island campus here, we are literally out of room. The concept was to build a new state of the art facility focusing not only on the public exhibits, but on STEM education. We’re going to have three interactive classes there hosting about 70,000 students every year to make use of those research laboratories totally free of charge,” said Bebak.

The three new STEM labs will be focused on Marine Ecology and Ocean Technology, while the third will deal with Bio Medical research. With resources and laboratories dedicated to workforce development, the excitement of expansion is focused on the educational benefits Mote SEA will offer the Sarasota community.

A large reason for the growth of the facility has to do with what is happening in our oceans and Mote’s researchers are right on the front lines. Expanding their conservation research is critical to their mission. “I think most of our exciting work we do is in coral reef restoration in the Florida keys, Turkey and the Carribean,” said Bebak, “we’re working with scientists around the world to grow these more resilient genotypes of corral and repopulate some of the damaged reef tracts that have been impacted by ocean acidification, temperature changes, and different diseases.”

Mote is Building a World Class Research Facility

The challenges of funding a world-class facility of this nature are considerable. In describing the process, Michael Moore, Special Advisor for Mote Marine elaborated. “$130 million by some standards is not a huge campaign but in our case, it’s the largest in the region that’s ever been done in.”

“The board and our CEO Dr. Michael Crosby have said we need to have all the commitments and pledges in place before we can actually start vertical construction of the building. So because a lot of people like to see something underway before they’ll step in and participate, it’s presented some challenges in that regard,” said Moore.

Getting Mote SEA Construction Started

“The 12 acres we’re actually building on is in a lake. We have to drain it, demuck it, put in the dirt and pack it down before we can even begin construction,” explained Moore, “for the funding, since it is the largest project in the region, we’re looking at three different sources, our philanthropic community, two counties are providing funding and the state, and corporate sponsorship. This building with 700,000 visitors a year, there’s a lot of opportunity there. We’re well on our way with over $90 million committed already.”

The team contracted to design the facility include TDS Design in Atlanta, who were the lead architects for the Georgia Aquarium, AOA Studios out of Orlando, FL. Two well known contracting firms Willis Smith Construction and Whiting-Turner will be working in partnership handling construction of the project.

On this specific type of facility, there are many different environmental concerns when using the different types of enclosures that will have to support marine life. “One of the challenges we’ve had here are is that this is a three store building. Some of our larger exhibits like the manatees and river otters are on the top floor. The Gulf of Mexico exhibit stands two floors,” said Bebak, “building a big pool on the roof of a hotel is a perfect example of kind of a similar thing. We’ve had to engineer it all so that it all supports itself.”

The Team Behind The Mote SEA Project

“Our lead engineers are EXP,” said Bebak, “the life support design and filtration, pumps motors, bio filters and ozone is being engineered by PCA Global out of San Diego. There’s a lot of materials involved but working with Basecrete’s been great, they’ve actually donated materials we’ve used here for our river otters and gator habitats and it’s been a great product. All of the products have to be resilient, we’re in there scrubbing down walls, animals are in there rubbing against it. Of course they have to be non-toxic because we have animals living in there.”

Waterproofing, Weatherproofing & Sustainability

Seeing as that aquatic enclosures are going to be suspended on the second and third floor of the structure, we asked Vito Mariano who has worked on numerous projects for Tampa, Miami, and Toronto Zoos what some of the technical challenges were with waterproofing these type of vessels.

“Deflection is probably the biggest issue we deal with. Depending on how much movement, how much support the beams and posts that are supporting it. We have pools that are 30, 40 stories up and sometimes they are quite challenging,” said Mariano, “if it goes beyond a certain percentage of movement we may have some difficulty. We want to make sure they are structurally sound enough before we do any waterproofing.”

“Waterproofing for marine life is a different challenge, we want to make sure that these animals are well taken care of and there’s no VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) or toxicities. Any elements that are harmful to marine life, we want to make sure that’s encapsulated,” said Mariano.

“Waterproofing and weather proofing is extremely important,” said Bebak, “there’s a lot of propriety additives in concrete mixes so we want to avoid water intrusion, cracking.”

Sustainability of the eco-environment is a big concern to Bebak, “We’re about 10 miles from the coast and so all of our seawater needs recirculating systems. In order to recapture as much of that saltwater and fresh water as we can we’re going to be using backwash recovery systems,” explained Bebak, “we’ll actually refilter and clean up that backwash, remove as much concentrated organic material as we can before that goes to waste. We’re also going to have heat exchangers that capture the thermal mass because we have to heat and cool water. All of these tanks require different temperatures all the way from our manatees to our penguins. To save on electricity we recapture the heat and cold from the backwash water to save as much as we can on utility costs.”

The design concept for the life support system and the plans to deploy green technologies to lower the carbon footprint of the facility are in line with the organizations goals for sustainability. This coupled with the exciting design plans for the Mote Sea facility make this intriguing project, one we’re following closely.

Learn more about this incredible project, and the Mote Marine mission on the Pool Magazin Podcast.