Established in 1941, The University of Texas Marine Science Institute is the oldest and most significant marine research facility on the Texas coast. What began humbly as a small shack in Port Aransas is now home to cutting-edge scientists, graduate students and educators. Since the institute’s founding, scientists have been helping create more productive fisheries, have been educating our next generation of scientific leaders, and are now working to understand how our oceans and coasts are changing through time. They engage in research on all aspects of our oceans and coasts, and their findings affect our everyday lives. The University of Texas Marine Science Institute has a tremendous economic impact and is a critical resource for the State of Texas.

UTMSI is home of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Animal Rehabilitation Keep, Wetlands Education Center and the Fisheries and Mariculture Lab.

Facts

• Provided the know-how to repopulate the Gulf of Mexico with redfish and is now helping to restore dwindling flounder populations
• Has had an enormous economic impact on the state by creating techniques for breeding and releasing saltwater fish
• Brings in $6 in external research funding for every $1 the State of Texas provides
• Educates over 10,000 K–12 children annually about the importance of our Texas coasts, bays and estuaries
• Is pointing the way to possible new treatments for cancer and infertility in humans
• Prepares teachers to better educate our children in science for the future of Texas
• Was involved in the first discovery of deep water oil in the Gulf of Mexico