Get to know us better!
MarineLab is a program of Marine Resources Development Foundation, Inc. a 501(c)3 organization founded in 1970 to promote ocean conservation through education, research, and collaboration. We’ve been at our Key Largo facility since 1985.
Facilities
See a photo gallery of our campus.
Water Safety
Find out more about how we put our participant’s safety FIRST!
The Land We’re On
Check out our Land Acknowledgement Statement
Art Mitchell Fund
Read about how you can support Title 1 schools ability to visit MarineLab.
Our Local Activities
Learn about how we support and interact with our local community!
Our Staff
Meet our exceptional team members!
Mission Statement
To use education and adventure in the Florida Keys ecosystem
to foster environmental awareness and stewardship on a local, regional, and global scale.
Our History
MarineLab is the education arm of Marine Resources Development Foundation (MRDF), a 501(c)3 organization founded in 1970 in the US Virgin Islands. After years of conducting research and developing underwater research stations and the technology for living and working in the sea, MRDF's founder Ian Koblick turned his eyes towards Florida and expanding MRDF's activities to include education.
In 1984, the MarineLab Undersea Classroom was put in the turning basin of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. The first students to be part of a MarineLab program came from Broward County, FL, and spent at least one night in the undersea classroom. In 1985, a property nearby was acquired with its own lagoon, and the MarineLab Undersea Classroom was relocated. The facility was renovated to provide dorms, an exisiting restaurant building was renovated as a cafeteria, and boats were acquired. The first snorkeling MarineLab program was offered in 1985.
In 1986, Art Mitchell, a former Palm Beach County science teacher, took over the direction of the MarineLab program. He created the curriculum and the programs that built attendance over the course of five years from a few hundred to a few thousand students per year. Ginette Hughes joined the team in late 1986 as the "booking secretary" and the two cooperated in creating what is essentially the same MarineLab program that our students experience today. The combination of discussion, exploration, and reinforcement of concepts was - and is - highly successful and highly popular. Some of those early students have gone on to become teachers and are now bringing their students to MarineLab! We average about 5,000 students and teachers per year in our onsite programs, most of whom attend with schools that have been coming to MarineLab for years if not decades. About 2/3 of our schools are from Florida and the rest travel from as far away as Alaska, Wisconsin, Arizona and Maine.
Art Mitchell passed away in October 2017, but his legacy lives on in the MarineLab programs and in our Art Mitchell Memorial Scholarship Fund today, providing financial assistance to students from Florida Title I schools that want to attend MarineLab with their class. Ginette Hughes is now Chief Executive Officer. Senior Vice President Sarah Egner continues to fine tune the program, adapting to numerous regulatory changes along the way, and keeping the curriculum up to date with the most current scientific research.