[9] Since 1978, the laboratory has expanded to include a 10.5-acre (4.2 ha) campus in Sarasota, the Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration on Summerland Key, a public exhibit in Key West, a Boca Grande outreach office, and the Mote Aquaculture Research Park in eastern Sarasota County.

Special exhibits have included "Otters and Their Waters" and "The Teeth Beneath: The Wild World of Gators, Crocs, and Caimans" that features animals found in the watershed (land that drains into the ocean and other waterbodies), including North American river otters, American alligators, and spectacled caimans.

Other resident animals, such as sea turtles and river otters, are fed and trained similarly during sessions designed to enhance their care and provide healthy stimulation.

All narrated training and feeding sessions are designed specifically for animal care, and in some cases, to allow behavioral research intended to inform conservation of wild populations.

The laboratory also offers internships, summer camps, school visits, field trips, on-demand learning experiences, an annual special lecture series featuring staff scientists and other marine experts, and a digital-learning program called SeaTrek.TV, which connects staff educators to students and other audiences via live videoconferencing, often using common computer programs and service, making scientific lessons accessible to classrooms across the U.S. and abroad.

[13] The laboratory also provides enhanced adult learning programs such as professional development workshops for teachers,[14] and multiple aquarium tanks are maintained at other southwest Florida facilities, including at the Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport.

[15] For more than 35 years The Arthur Vining Davis Library and Archives has been providing resources, reference materials, and research publications at the laboratory.

[citation needed] Staff at the park continue research programs investigating marine aquaponics (growing fish and salt-tolerant "sea vegetables" in prototype greenhouses), examining the potential for aquaculture production of the Gulf of Mexico stock of almaco jack, examining the effects of probiotic supplements on the survival of larval fish, and other projects designed to inform and contribute to the growth of sustainable, commercial aquaculture.