Sea Center Texas

This Texas Parks and Wildlife Department facility, Sea Center Texas, includes a marine aquarium, fish hatchery, and wetland exhibit. A 50,000-gallon aquarium allows visitors to view large Gulf of Mexico marine animals. The site’s visitor center educates through interpretive displays; a 20-foot “touch tank;” and aquariums depicting native Texas habitats, including a salt marsh, jetty, reef, and open Gulf exhibits. The "touch tank" allows visitors to handle blue crabs, hermit crabs, anemones, and more. A 5-acre wetland exhibit is accessible by an elevated boardwalk.

The facility operates one of the three TPWD marine hatcheries located on the Texas coast that produce juvenile red drum and spotted speckled trout to stock in Texas bays. The hatchery has the capability to produce up to 15 million juvenile fish each year. Fish hatchery tours and educational programs are available by reservation. Admission is free to Sea Center Texas.

Flora/Fauna:
The Center features shark, red drum, spotted seatrout, sting rays, gray snapper, jack crevalle, a 300+ -pound Queensland grouper named Gordon, oysters, clams, pompano, barnacles, periwinkle, moray eels, angelfish, corals, seahorses, tripletail, jacks, and red snapper. Their wetland area features butterflies, hummingbirds, dragonflies, bulrushes, black mangroves, smooth cordgrass, wading birds, turtles, snakes, and wildflowers. A small outdoor pavilion provides a quiet resting or lunch spot adjacent to the butterfly and hummingbird gardens.

Activities:
* Aquariums
* Fishing ponds
* Marine fish hatchery
* Touch pools
* Wetland walkway
* TEKS-aligned lessons