On Friday afternoon, Sarasota’s political and civic heavyweights gathered for the invitation-only ribbon cutting of Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium’s new Science Education Aquarium at Nathan Benderson Park. Elected officials, including Rep. Greg Steube and Rep. Vern Buchanan, State Rep. Fiona McFarland, county commissioners, major donors such as Elizabeth Moore and the Benderson family, and other community leaders marked the occasion, which has been years in the making. Mote president and CEO Michael Crosby and other speakers framed the event as a milestone not only for the organization, but for the region’s identity as a hub for marine science and innovation.

Several speakers reflected on their own childhood visits to the former City Island aquarium, noting that its relocation to the mainland will ease access for families, students and tourists by removing the need to cross the Ringling Bridge and contend with high-season traffic. “As a mom in Sarasota County, I am thrilled that I do not have to fight City Island traffic with my double stroller and go over the curb," McFarland said. 

Steube shared a similar personal connection. “I grew up in this area, and as a young adolescent in elementary school at Abel Elementary School, I can remember the very first field trip we took to Mote Marine Aquarium to see the manatees," he recalled. He also emphasized the scale of private support behind the roughly $132 million project. “The mass majority of the funding for this project came philanthropically—not from the federal government, not from the state government, not from the county government," he said. "Everybody played their part in a public-private partnership. But the majority of the funding for this extraordinary project came from donors like the people in this room.”

Many at the ribbon-cutting described the new aquarium as both an educational investment in future marine biologists and a civic landmark that will put Sarasota on firmer footing in the national scientific landscape. The 146,000-square-foot facility, which will open to the public on Oct. 8, introduces a new array of exhibitions and education spaces, housing everything from sharks and rays to manatees, otters and penguins. Expanded research and teaching labs will support programs in fields like coastal ecology, coral restoration, ocean engineering and veterinary diagnostics, with capacity to serve more than 70,000 students annually. 

The new Mote Science and Education Aquarium (SEA) officially opens to the public on Oct. 8, 2025. For more information, go to mote.org.