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From the College of Natural Sciences
UTMSI Community Rebuilds Town and Research
More than a month after Hurricane Harvey's eyewall passed directly over the University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) at Port Aransas, the Institute and its surrounding community are still recovering from the devastations brought by the Category 4 hurricane. UTMSI, the oldest marine research facility on the Texas coast, sustain...
UT Marine Science Institute Awarded Grant to Complete Gulf Oil Spill Research
DROPPS scientists use lasers to investigate how plumes of oil and dispersant move through a water column. That movement changes when other animals, such as this marine invertebrate called a ctenophore, are present. Photo by Jeffery Cordero.
A consortium led by The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) is receiving $4.5 million in the third multi-million-dollar grant since 2012 supporting research on the impact of oil spills and dispersants on the Gulf of Mexico. Coming less than a month after Hurricane Harvey caused significant damage on the UTMSI campus, the announcement was made by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, a $500 million research program funded by British Petroleum in the wake of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill.
Science Community Rallies for Marine Science Institute
The scientific community has offered assistance to UTMSI researchers displaced by Hurricane Harvey.
Amidst the life-threatening floods and devastating damages to property, Hurricane Harvey also wreaked havoc on science institutions along the Texas coast. With the storm dissipated, scientists are now faced with both the personal toll and damage to research equipment and facilities.
Update from the Marine Science Institute after Hurricane Harvey
The message below is an update from University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute Director and Marine Science Department Chair Dr. Robert Dickey.
UT Marine Scientists to Relocate Temporarily to Texas A&M’s Corpus Christi Campus
University of Texas Marine Science Institute staff members Alicia Walker and Andrew Orgill release a pair of green sea turtles that had been recently rehabilitated on site and survived Hurricane Harvey. Credit: U. of Texas at Austin.
PORT ARANSAS, Texas — Dozens of displaced researchers, students and staff members from The University of Texas at Austin's Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) will spend the coming weeks at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Harte Research Institute, allowing research and educational activities to continue.
From Student to Philanthropist: Abell’s Transformational Gift Creates New Opportunities
On her way to the library, part-time marine science student Mary Abell stumbled upon the bustle of arrangements being made for a Marine Science Advisory Council meeting. At that time, little did she know that she and her husband, Joe would go on to have a lasting connection to The University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) which would become as strong and lasting as the granite jetties that border the Institute.
Oil Impairs Ability of Coral Reef Fish to Find Homes and Evade Predators
Damselfish, Chromis species. Photo credit: Jacob Johansen.
Just as one too many cocktails can lead a person to make bad choices, a few drops of oil can cause coral reef fish to make poor decisions, according to a paper published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution. A team of fisheries biologists led by Jacob Johansen and Andrew Esbaugh of The University of Texas Marine Science Institute have discovered that oil impacts the higher-order thinking of coral reef fish in a way that could prove dangerous for them—and for the coral reefs where they make their home.
Spying on Fish Love Calls Could Help Protect Them from Overfishing
Marine scientists have discovered a way to use the incredibly loud, distinctive sounds that fish make when they gather to spawn--not to catch them but to protect them. Illustration credit: Jenna Luecke/Univ. of Texas at Austin.
About a third of the world's fish stocks are being overfished, meaning they're being harvested faster than they can reproduce, and species that spawn seasonally in large groups are especially vulnerable, easy for fishers to locate and plucked from the water often before they've seeded the next generation.
Can Sound Save a Fish? (Audio)
Gulf Corvina look pretty ordinary—they're a couple of feet long and silvery. Yet the sounds they make—when millions get together to spawn—are a kind of wonder of the natural world. It's also why they are in danger.
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