FUN FACTS

■ The Indo-Pacific exhibit will harbor juvenile zebra sharks that are dark brown with zebra-like stripes, but adults are tan with brown leopard-like spots. This is why a zebra shark is sometimes known as a leopard shark.

■ Each animal that arrives at the Science Education Aquarium will have received a series of medical procedures, from pre-departure exams to quarantine exams when they arrive. An example of a pre-departure exam is a visual assessment and bloodwork.

■ Quarantines can last between 30 and 90 days depending on the species, during which time qualified aquarium biologists and veterinarians monitor behavior, diet and health before the animal is put into its habitat with other animals.

■ The Gulf of Mexico exhibit, the largest exhibit at Mote SEA, will include sand tiger, blacknose, sandbar, bonnethead and nurse sharks. Did you know, the only bones in a shark's body are the ones it has eaten?

■ Guests of Mote SEA will be able to get up close to a giant Pacific octopus. This species of octopus can weigh up to 150 pounds and is the largest known octopus species.

■ The colony of Humboldt penguins at Mote SEA will be made up of individuals from up to four other facilities that are actively breeding them as part of their species survival plan.

■ Before concrete was poured for Mote SEA’s Gulf of Mexico habitat, a 1922 silver dollar was placed at the bottom as a nod to Mote's Founding Director Eugenie Clark, who was born in 1922.

■ If you see rockfish at the Mote SEA, you children and your children's children might be seeing the same fish. Rockfish live to be more than 100 years old.

■ Mote SEA will have a deep sea exhibit that will include giant isopods, scavengers that mainly are found from 500 feet to more than 7,000 feet below the surface at low temperatures and pitch darkness.