In the visitor Center, there is a touch tank, and aquariums that display the various types of gulf water environments and the fish one would find there. We loved the visitor center, especially when we got to see them feed the fish.
After that we toured the hatchery. Sea Center Texas hatches and releases red drum, speckled trout and flounder (just added this year). Why? Because the numbers of these native fish had decreased and they want to make sure we have a good population of them in the Texas Gulf waters. When they are released they are only fingerling size, but they have a much greater survival rate than those in nature.
In this photo are tanks that are temperature and light controlled to trick the red fish and flounder into thinking that it is fall, and time to spawn. In the mornings, the Sea Center Texas guys collect the eggs and count them and take them to the incubation room.
It was full of mosquitos and there weren't any eggs incubating the day we visited. But there were some fish in this tub the kids are looking into.
After this we went out to the fishing pond. We didn't get to see all the ponds where they put the hatchlings.
The last thing we did was the wetlands tour. We saw some turtles and a yellow crested night heron.
I'm thankful to our wonderful homeschool group, Gulf Coast Christian Home Scholars, and the GCCHS volunteers that make all the field trips possible.
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