An inaugural festival educated and entertained the many who came out Saturday for Mote’s Ocean Fest: A Community Celebration at Founders Park.
The day featured a host of vendors from nonprofits to food and drinks as well as a scavenger hunt, music by four bands and a live painting by Pasta Pantaleo. The festival showcased the treasured marine environment while raising awareness for coral reef research and restoration.
Festivalgoers had the opportunity to explore conservation environmental exhibits, meet live animals, experience touch tanks and more. Children had the opportunity to practice their casting and climb a rock wall.
Dr. Michael Crosby, Mote president and CEO, said Ocean Fest’s gathers the community and organizations that are working in the environment to emphasize how critical the coral reef is to the Keys.
“The Florida Keys are literally built on coral reefs. We’ve got a very unique culture here, an economy and a way of life that is all dependent on a healthy coral reef,” Crosby said. “Unfortunately, our coral reefs are in a significant state of decline from increasing temperature to coral disease that’s spreading like wildfire through the Keys.”
Crosby said the disease has an 80 percent mortality rate and is on the verge of wiping out the last vestiges of coral reefs – pushing them into functional extinction. Crosby said Ocean Fest is trying to raise awareness of the problem and the innovative science and technology developments to combat it.
“Mote Marine Lab and our colleagues have been able to develop the methods and the techs to very rapidly restore these coral reefs through a replanting of native coral species that we have identified the resilient strains to the diseases, to increase temp, to acidification. What we are planting out there with the community will be here 100 and 200 years, and we’ll bring back the vitality and health of our coral reef ecosystem together.”
At Mote Marine Laboratory, there are 1,712 volunteers who are involved in every aspect of what the organization does. Crosby said they couldn’t do it by themselves.
“We do need citizens, local volunteer citizen scientists to be directly engaged to help us monitor the status but also in helping to actually restore these coral reefs,” he said. “We cannot do it by ourselves. The community has to get engaged in this. Their support is vital to the success of this effort.”
Visit mote.org for information.
