Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium | Must See & Do, Tips for Visiting, & More!

Hey everybody, welcome to the Waldock Way. I'm Jessica. I'm Emily. I'm Kevin. And today's video is going to be a learning on location. So we just got home from Sarasota, Florida, where we had the chance to go spend two days at the Moat Marine Laboratory and Aquarium. Why did we head there? Because Eugenie Clark founded that place. And why did we want to go to where Eugenie Clark founded? So we could learn more about her and sharks. Because it was what, babe? Shark week. Alright, Emily, do you want to start by telling us what your favorite part was? Yes, ma'am. My favorite part was going to the Crap Brothers part because you got to learn about all kinds of things and you got to save sea creatures on this computer and you got to see all kinds of stuff. So at the Moat Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, they have until, I believe it's September of this year? Yeah. They extended it. They have a Wild Kratts Ocean Exhibit. And so if your kids are interested in Wild Kratts, they have all these little like hands-on exhibits set up, like steam type things, where you can try out some of their creature power. So you can kind of see what it would be like to be that creature. What is the one that you two guys did that was so funny? Oh, that was the octopus arm. We had to move the chest. That was super hard. Yeah, it was really complicated but well thought out. It was all mechanical. Basically you had two controls and you had to move and maneuver the octopus tentacle in, to, and through a structure and then basically push a piece of cheese from one side to the other side. And yeah, it was complicated. I watched a lot of people fail at it. Luckily we were able to do it. I was pretty impressed. Y'all were. Yeah, Dad had to tell me which way to go because it was kind of hard. Yeah, it took both of you though, didn't it? And of course it was not real cheese. It was actually not real cheese. It would probably have been stinky cheese if it had been real cheese. Oh yeah, definitely. So babe, what was your favorite part of the field trip? Mine would have to be the 4D experience. There are a set of chairs and you have the ability to pick out what you're interested in seeing, which would be like a virtual rollercoaster, swimming with squids, swimming with whales, and of course there's shark week, so we wanted to swim with sharks. So you get to go in and swim virtually. You can look 360, top behind, wherever you can look with your VR, you're seeing it. And it's all about tiger sharks and how they're doing some studies on those. So I thought that was pretty well done. What I thought was really cool is the virtual reality that we were in is like a documentary that we actually had watched during shark week. So we watched the exact documentary during shark week, which was National Geographic. Yeah, it was a National Geographic. And then we went to Mote Marine Lab and Aquarium and they had it on virtual reality. So you were actually like essentially part of the documentary and you were moving and you could feel it and it was really cool. All right, so what was your favorite part? My favorite part was actually something additional that you can do and it is the eco boat tour, the leaves from the aquarium. Now just like the 4D experience, in case we didn't mention it, it is an additional cost. The shark for sure, and from what I've heard, the humpback whale though on the virtual reality are definitely worth it. And in my opinion, so is this boat tour. So it is the sea life encounter by the Sarasota Bay. And we've done a few of these different boat tours before in the past. We've done some in the St. Johns. We did one at Clearwater Marine Aquarium where we went into the bay, which was fun. I have to say this was hands down the best one we've ever done. So it was like two hours. They actually take you out into the bay while you're looking for animals. You stop in an uninhabited, I knew I was going to say that wrong, an uninhabited island where you get to get out and walk around and see some of the different things on the island. Some invasive species. They talk about the mangroves and why they're so important to everything in the state. And actually how it's totally illegal to chop one down, like a $25,000 fine, which kind of surprised me. But then they also drop a net, and when they drop the net in the water, they're trolling, and they catch whatever they can catch, and then you get to experience it. So some of the things that they caught were sponges and sea urchins and crabs, which you got to touch. Well, we, but you touched them more than anybody else. You got to touch some of them. Not the crabs. I was going to say, what were you not allowed to touch? Crabs. But one was so cute, they were like tiny little crabs, and the one that was really weird was the arrowhead crab. Yes, it was. It looks like a spider. It did. It looks just like a daddy long legs crab, right? It was a little weird. Yeah, he was cool. But then they immediately release anything they've caught, so no worries there. But you have a marine biologist on board, so they teach you, not just show you and let you touch it, but they teach you all of the stuff about the things that they caught. So every tour would be different. You could take it again the next day, and depending on what they caught, you would obviously be experiencing something different. Well, not only that, you also get to see if there's any wildlife out. We didn't get to see the dolphin that I was looking for, but there's a lot of birds. This was the end of the mating season and nesting season on some of the islands. So they explained and stopped and took a lot of time to go around the little islands and show you why they're protected and what species actually use it for an aviary. Yeah, that was pretty good. It was. Okay, so I think a few things that are honorable mention for sure are the fact that we all got the chance to touch a shark, right? I mean, as cool as everything is, that's part of the included thing. You can pet a shark, an epaulette, or a cat's eye shark if it's out. And so that was something that we all got to experience. Now, you had done it before, right? You obviously got to feed and pet the shark at Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Yes, but this one was really cool because it was so cute and they were speedy too. That one kind of scared me out of me. I'm like, holy banana pants, that one's coming out fast. They were pretty speedy for their size. And then also, I think something else that was pretty cool was obviously you also got to pet a ray, right? Oh yeah, and I named two of them. One was speedy and one was Rebecca, I think. Yeah, you were naming them. And then I think the last thing that is honorable mention for me is the fossil creek, which was another additional charge, but I think it was very worth it. I think so. So, you get basically a bag of sand and fossil stuff and you go over to the little water area and you actually got to do that, so why don't you tell us about it? Yeah, so I took the filter, like the little net, and we poured sand into it and I like shook it in the water so sand fell into the water and then I found all kinds of fossils. And what were the fossils most all of them? Teeth! Sharks' teeth. Yeah, so that was pretty cool. So one thing that I learned on this field trip was during our virtual reality experience, they were talking about sharks and their different behaviors and things to look out for. And so they were discussing that when a shark starts to flutter its eyelids, it is stressed. And I didn't know that before, so not that I plan to be in close contact with a shark, but if it flutters its eyelids, I'm getting the heck out of Dodge. So what was something or even a couple of things that you learned while we were on our field trip? I learned that if you drop your guard and you're not careful, one of the tiger sharks' method is to come from behind, which is pretty scary if you drop your guard. That's true. Yeah, they can be sneaky, right? Alright, Mr. Know-It-All. Did you learn anything on this field trip? Actually, I did. I really did. You did? I've been down south quite a few times and I've been out on water. So I have seen the islands and I've seen the trees, mangroves and taller pines. Just assumed, living in Florida all my life, that those were native species. Once we were on the boat tour and we got to go out onto one of the mangrove islands and disembark and go for an educational tour, that's when I found out that a lot of those pine-looking trees are not native species. They are an Australian pine. They were brought with the sole purpose of stabilizing the man-made islands. But they're actually an invasive species, right? They are extremely. Because they're acidic like most pines, so vegetation, especially natural vegetation, cannot establish well underneath them. So while they're holding the little islands together, it's not in a good way. And now they're doing studies trying to figure out where all has been impacted and how big the groves are. And then there was one other species of a South American tree that had berries that looks like holly. And that's why it was brought as a replacement for holly because we don't have holly in Florida. And so then they started introducing that one. And then they found out that you can't cut it, you can't burn it. To get rid of the tree, they have no idea how to do it safely because it is like poison ivy. That's right. And so people get sick and have skin reactions and everything else. And then if they try to cut it down, even with protective gear, and burn it, the ash and the smoke are just as toxic as the plant itself and cause all kinds of respiratory problems. You get infected from the poisons just as much as if you ran through it and broke the leaves and got the sap on you. So yeah, I learned quite a bit of just about the little islands on the boat trip. Would you go back? Totally. If I could, probably like 20 times a day. Yeah? And would you recommend it for other people? Totally. A 100 out of 100.