Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium

The Mote Aquarium located in Sarasota Florida conducts wide-ranging research such as how fishes interact with their habitats and how disturbances influence these interactions. By understanding how fish use habitats, the Mote is seeking to develop a better understanding of how disturbances impact these fish-habitat interactions and ultimately how disturbances affect fish populations.

The Fisheries Habitat Ecology Program focuses on coastal fishes, ranging from coral reef fishes to economically important sport fish. In all cases, the focal species are tools to learn about coastal ecological processes. Most recently, the focus has been on recreationally important species, including common snook, bonefish, tarpon and permit. All of these are economically important sport fish throughout the Caribbean.

The overall goal of the Mote’s program is to use theoretical ecology to help frame applied research, and to then use the research findings to improve the way coastal fisheries resources are managed and conserved. By necessity, it means the Mote makes extra effort to conduct extensive outreach and education intended to educate user groups, local communities, resource managers and political leaders about coastal ecosystems.

One way the Mote does this is to involve recreational anglers in their research so that they learn about how science is conducted, become better educated about the resource and become better stewards of coastal resources.

For more information about the research and education initiatives at Mote link to: https://mote.org/research

Hear from one of Mote’s leading acoustic researchers