Red Tide Testing Facility Opens At Mote Aquaculture Research Park

SARASOTA, FL — A ribbon cutting led by Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated the opening of a red tide mitigation technologies testing facility — the first of its kind — at the Mote Aquaculture Research Park in Sarasota Tuesday.

The state-of-the-art recirculating seawater facility is operated by the Florida Red Tide Mitigation & Technology Development Initiative, which is led by Mote Marine Laboratory in collaboration with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The state-funded initiative is getting closer to finding technologies and strategies that could be used to mitigate future red tide blooms, Mote said in a news release. In this new facility, partnering scientists and engineers from around the country are testing different technologies before deploying them in bays and coastal waters to ensure they want harm the ecosystems.

More than 25 different partnership projects have been funded since the initiative formed in June 2019. Partners range from marine research institutions and universities to private companies and government agencies.

The nearly 29,000-square-foot Red Tide Mitigation and Technology Development Facility features:

• a raceway system featuring twelve 450-gallon raceways,
• two labs featuring 12 5-foot mesocosms each,
• one lab featuring 12 10-foot mesocosms,
• Karenia brevis culture room and lab, which provides active red tide cells to Initiative-funded projects and
• a chemistry and water quality lab.

The facility can store more than 160,000 gallons of treated and recirculated seawater storage.

“The new Red Tide Mitigation and Technology Development Facility at Mote Marine Lab will provide scientists the ability to research red tide, and hopefully lead to new technologies that prevent and mitigate harmful blooms,” DeSantis said.

Mote President and CEO Dr. Michael P. Crosby added, “An important part of the Initiative was the development of an incredible technology development and testing facility with dedicated laboratories that include massive Karenia brevis production capabilities, chemical analytics and seawater mesocosms that mimic coastal ecosystems — all strategically designed to safely test mitigation and control techniques, compounds, and technologies in a controlled setting away from the coast.”

The facilities are located at the Mote Aquaculture Research Park, a 200-acre research and development facility constructed in 2001 to pioneer the development of sustainable aquaculture technology to help feed the world, restock depleted species and address the need to develop a viable, domestic aquaculture industry in the U.S., Mote said in its news release.