The vision of creating an Ocearch center in Mayport reeled in $7 million in state money in the budget approved Monday as lawmakers cast their support behind building a Florida-based home for the non-profit that tracks sharks up and down the East Coast.
Whether the Ocearch headquarters ends up landing the money or — cue the "Jaws" theme music — suffers a veto will depend on Gov. Ron DeSantis and his assessment of the budget on a line-by-line basis.
“Miracle of miracles, politics being what it is right now, it managed to get traction," said Quinton White, executive director of the Marine Science Research Institute at Jacksonville University, which has a partnership with Ocearch. "It’s in the budget and we’re holding our breath that it can survive.”
Read the rest of this story at WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.