MOTE - Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research & Restoration

The Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration, known as IC2R3, is Mote Marine Laboratory’s main Florida Keys campus, at 24244 Overseas Highway on Summerland Key, about 24 miles from Key West. It is a fully equipped marine science facility built for coral reef research and restoration, and in late 2017 it became the first commercial building in Monroe County to earn LEED Gold certification.

Its location is the point. The lab sits within reach of reefs, seagrass meadows, nearshore hardbottom and mangrove forest, much of it inside national wildlife refuges and NOAA’s Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which means the research subjects are minutes from the tanks.

Visitors can get inside. Free behind-the-scenes tours run on Tuesday mornings, showing the working side of coral restoration rather than a display aquarium. Each tour is limited to twelve people and requires a reservation in advance, so this is a plan-ahead stop rather than a drive-by.

Mote runs two other Keys campuses, both of which also offer free public tours on their own schedules. The Islamorada Coral Nursery sits at Bud n’ Mary’s Marina and tours on Tuesday afternoons. The Key Largo Coral Nursery sits at Reefhouse Resort and Marina and tours three times a week, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and Friday afternoons. Between them the nurseries hold tens of thousands of healthy coral fragments destined for Florida’s Coral Reef.