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Sea Center Texas

I was concerned as to where we would start and what we would cover in our first few stories. My concerns were laid to rest when my son and I visited the Sea Center Texas at Lake Jackson back in January.

This bronze statue symbolizes the value of this great facility.

We arrived about 9 o’clock and found the doors still locked, which is alright as it wasn’t the peak season for visitors at Sea Center. We decided to walk over to an area that looked like it was accessible and found it was a small natural area of a Texas marshland and had a walkway that you could traverse and really see what a marshland looks like.

Seeing the marsh and knowing the effort and thought put forth to create such reality made me even more curious about what was on the inside. So being the person I am, I decided to go around to the back where all of the cars were parked. My son read the sign that said EMPLOYEES ONLY and gave me a look as I pulled through the gate.

There were several of the TP&W personnel sitting at an outside table taking a break so I walked up and introduced myself and handed them one of my cards. I was immediately taken inside and introduced to the facility director, David Abrego. David listened to my rendition of what the FishNet Daily News was and what we were wanting to do in helping men, women, and kids learn more and enjoy more about. our state’s fishing resources. We were then introduced to Connie Stolte, the visitor’s center director, and Mike Garza, the physical plant engineer and learned we were going to get a tour of the entire plant and facilities.

I can not say enough good things about the treatment we received from all of the employees at the Sea Center and the volunteers (what great people they have to represent the Sea Center of Texas). We were given a tour of the complete facility by Mike Garza that lasted about two and a half hours. There was not a question he could not answer and never seemed to be in a hurry. We were shown the indoor tank farm where all the eggs for the trout, redfish, flounder, and tarpon are collected for fertilization. We were shown how they count their eggs and prep them for the fertilization process. The mature fish are kept in tanks approximately 12 ft. in diameter and about 7 ft. deep. There is a constant flow of water into the tanks that has to be filtered and the facilities for doing this are very impressive. Thanks Mike for the great tour.

Thanks should also be extended to the Dow Chemical Company, who dedicated the land and helped fund the construction project so that this facility could serve the outdoor and fishing enthusiast of The State of Texas.

We noticed there were some observation windows in the side of the tanks that were about a foot square and we could see the fish through the windows. Some of the fish were absolutely enormous.

What was really funny, was the fact that the redfish were as curious of us as we were of them. We caught one of them looking through the tank window at us. This fish stayed in this position for several minutes.

After our tour with Mike we were passed off to Connie Stolte the visitors center manager and she graciously showed us through the visitor’s center and the 36 one acre fish ponds where school groups and general public are allowed to fish (in one of the ponds) on a “catch and release” basis, on designated days of the month. This would be a tremendous outing for any school group.

There are many things to see and do at the Sea Center and not just for kids. When you see the tremendous successes these people are achieving in the breeding and research of redfish, trout, flounder, and tarpon and the facilities they are making available to the different youth groups and the public for educational purposes it bolsters your appreciation of the Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Sea Center has a very successful trout and redfish program and they supply many thousands of redfish fingerlings to the fresh water lakes in Texas such as Braunig Lake south of San Antonio on Interstate 37.

As far as the tarpon and flounder programs go, they are new and are still in the development stage and are not producing enough eggs at this time for restocking purposes. However, we feel there is no doubt that both programs will be extremely successful in the future and Sea Center Texas will be furnishing many fingerling flounder and tarpon for restocking purposes.

Kelly Brooks made sure we were privileged to see a feeding session.

When you go to the Sea Center (and you must) be sure and see Gordon the Grouper (375 lb). He even gets his own birthday party.

We look forward to using the resources of the Sea Center for future articles and again want to thank David Abrego, Connie Stolte, Mike Garza, Kelly Brooks, Nadia and all the employees and volunteers for all of their time and hospitality. We know it’s your job; we want you to know that you do it very well.

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