Mote Marine Laboratory, Marine research center and public aquarium in Sarasota, United States

Mote Marine Laboratory is a research center and public aquarium in Sarasota that displays over a hundred marine species while conducting intensive research on ocean ecosystems, sharks, and coral reefs. Visitors can view fish, sharks, and other sea creatures through tanks and exhibits while scientists work behind the scenes studying ocean problems and testing solutions.

Founded in 1955 as Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, the facility received its current name in 1967 to honor the Mote family. This renaming reflected the organization's growth and strengthened commitment to marine research and conservation.

The name Mote honors benefactors William R. Mote, his wife Lenore and his sister Betty Mote Rose, who gave the laboratory its 1967 name. Its public aquarium opened in 1980 on City Island, showing sharks, manatees, sea turtles, seahorses and rays, with windows into working laboratories. Staff also run SeaTrek.TV, live videoconference lessons reaching classrooms across the U.S. and abroad.

The City Island campus covers 10.5 acres, with the aquarium, working laboratories and the Arthur Vining Davis Library and Archives on site; library visits may require an appointment. The newer Mote Science Education Aquarium opened in October 2025 next to University Town Center, so check which site you are heading to before setting out.

The lab's dolphin research, run with the Chicago Zoological Society, is described as the longest-running study of a wild dolphin population. Founder Eugenie Clark, who died in February 2015, was still serving as senior scientist, director emerita and trustee at the time. A library has existed since the Cape Haze days.