The University of Texas Marine Science Institute sits on the coast at the mouth of the Aransas Channel, where the Gulf of Mexico meets the bays. On Saturday, October 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., it throws open its doors for Island Science Day, a free open house at the Patton Center for Marine Science Education, 855 E. Cotter Ave. in Port Aransas. There is no admission charge and no registration required to attend.
The occasion is a double anniversary: 85 years of marine science at UTMSI, and 20 years of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Both numbers trace back to a single summer on the coast, and to a fish kill that nobody could explain.
In the summer of 1935, a biologist named Elmer J. Lund came to Port Aransas to investigate a massive die-off of fish along the shore. He built a small one-room shack on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dock and used it as his laboratory. The kill, it turned out, was almost certainly caused by a red tide. Lund made careful notes on what he called the "escape of irritating gas dissolved in sea water," and observed that the species dying in the greatest numbers, menhaden and mullet, were the ones that live near the surface.
His observations raised more questions than they answered, and he lacked the facilities to chase them down. In a report to the Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission, he wrote that "provision of an adequately equipped Marine Laboratory is the first and only effective means to an answer to this and all similar questions relating to animal and plant life in the Gulf." He then set about persuading the University of Texas to build one. The Marine Science Institute was formally founded in 1941, with Lund as its first director. It is the oldest and most significant marine research facility on the Texas coast.
Eighty-five years later, the questions Lund raised are still being worked. Biologists and chemists at the institute continue to study what makes red tide tick, using genetics to examine dinoflagellates related to Karenia brevis, the organism behind modern blooms. The institute's research now spans three broad areas: biogeochemistry, fish physiology, and ecosystem dynamics. It is home to UT Austin's Department of Marine Science, with roughly 15 or 16 faculty and about 35 to 41 graduate students, and it has received funding appropriated by the Texas State Legislature since 1971.
The second anniversary belongs to the reserve. The Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve is managed by UTMSI with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. At 186,189 acres, it is among the largest research reserves in the country and one of only five in the Gulf of Mexico, one of 30 in the national system. It spans the bay systems from Port Aransas to Refugio to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, protecting wetland, upland, and marine environments typical of the western Gulf. Each reserve in the national system is meant to function as a "living laboratory," where scientists do research and educators translate the results for the public. The reserve's stated goals are to improve knowledge of Texas coastal ecosystems, to promote understanding of them among diverse audiences, and to build public support for stewarding coastal resources. It works alongside partners including the Texas General Land Office, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Coastal Bend Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, the Fennessey Ranch, and the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuary Program.
Island Science Day is the annual moment when that work is turned outward. Visitors can wander interactive exhibits, meet scientists and students, tour research facilities, and take in hands-on demonstrations and come-and-go activities. Vendor and outreach booths will be set up, and food and refreshments will be available. Self-guided tours of the Wetlands Education Center and the Water Wise Wildlife Garden are open to all.
The Wetlands Education Center is a 3.6-acre trail system that the institute describes as one of a kind in Texas, offering a hands-on encounter with coastal wetlands and the habitats they support. The Water Wise Wildlife Garden demonstrates native coastal vegetation, the plants that feed and shelter local wildlife. Both sit adjacent to the Patton Center, which houses eight large aquaria and the Estuary Explorium, an interactive hall built for visitors of every age. Hurricane Harvey heavily damaged it in 2017, and it was renovated with support from UT Austin, NOAA, and philanthropists Bobby and Sherri Patton, reopening as a bright, modern facility designed by the Corpus Christi firm Turner & Ramirez Architects. Its tanks mirror the water a few hundred yards away: sheepshead, Gulf menhaden, a southern flounder lying flat in the sand, a spotted rock hind. One exhibit lets visitors push water left or right with a lever to watch juvenile bluntnose jacks orient themselves to the current; another simulates a wave zone, with water coming down from above over sea urchins and other animals.
The day's most unusual access comes on the water. Special excursions aboard the R/V Katy and the Curt Johnson offer a closer look at local estuaries, seagrass habitats, and marine life. The Katy is a 57-foot research vessel with a capacity of 25 passengers not counting crew; the Curt Johnson is a landing craft that carries 16. Both excursions are restricted to adults and children aged 10 and above. Space is limited, and registration for the boat trips opens one hour before each scheduled departure, on a first-come, first-served basis.
Demonstrations also require registration, and they too are capped. In-person sign-up begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Patton Center Auditorium. Past years give a sense of the offerings: sessions on plastics and nurdles, wetland ecology, fishing and fisheries, sea turtles, sediment and seaweed sampling, and a "What's in my net?" station where participants sort through whatever the water gives up. Turtle Talk, in past years, was limited to 20 people per session; most other demonstrations capped at 15.
For anyone in Austin weighing a coast trip, the timing is convenient. The institute is a working research station, not a museum, and Island Science Day is one of the few days it invites the general public onto the docks and into the labs. The Bay Education Center in Rockport, one of the institute's other public campuses, will be closed that Saturday so its staff can join the celebration in Port Aransas; it reopens Tuesday, October 6. The weekend also includes a Friday evening reception and special presentation at the Patton Center on October 2 at 5:30 p.m., kicking off the anniversary.
Eighty-five years after a biologist in a borrowed shack wrote that a properly equipped laboratory was the only way to answer the Gulf's questions, the laboratory is there, and for four hours on a Saturday, the door is open.