The Dauphin Island Sea Lab, founded in 1971 on the east end of Dauphin Island beside Fort Gaines, is Alabama’s primary marine education and research center and the home of the Marine Environmental Sciences Consortium. Built on land once used by the U.S. Air Force’s 693rd Radar Squadron, it combines active coastal science with public education. Its best-known public feature, the George F. Crozier Estuarium, presents the habitats and species of coastal Alabama, from the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta and Mobile Bay to the barrier islands and northern Gulf of Mexico. Later additions expanded this mission with Rays of the Bay in 2013 and a marine mammal stranding research facility in 2015.