For most of the last three years they have been building a new Mote Marine Aquarium next to University Town Center and Nathan Henderson Park off of I75. The original Mote Marine facility was built in 1955 on Longboat key. This new facility is three stories tall and state of the art. We signed up for a family membership for the year and Daryl and I were able to attend a preview on Tuesday afternoon (before the official public opening later this week).
Outside on the top floor are the river otters and the manatees.
There's a rooftop observation deck that you can rent out for parties too.
The third floor also has a Virtual Reality section where you can take five minute tours of sharks underwater or humpback whales and a few other experiences.
In one of their labs, they are growing jellyfish.
On the second floor, we started off with the penguins.
And a bunch of king crabs.....
Sea Nettles
And lion fish.
They are growing coral in labs too.
They have a lot of touch tanks too.
But the biggest feature is a massive two story tank on the first and second floors - that you can stand up top and look down on, sit next to, or even sit under parts. The sharks in there and the schools of fish float right over you.
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