Port A is home to UTMSI

Have you ever wondered where the first permanent marine laboratory was built in Texas?

If your guess was The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, you are correct!

UTMSI, as most locals call it, was formally founded in 1941.

The institute manages the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), which is the third largest estuarine reserve in the United States.

UTMSI was awarded $11.7 million to support Hurricane Harvey recovery at the NERR. The funds were awarded from the United States Congress to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Mission-Aransas Reserve is a federal and state partnership between NOAA and the University of Texas.

As a result of Hurricane Harvey, which damaged many buildings on campus in August 2017, all public areas at UTMSI are closed to the public.

Hurricane Harvey caused more than $45 million in damage to UTMSI.

UTMSI’s main campus is located on 72 acres of beachfront land, at the mouth of the Aransas Pass and the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Home to undergraduate students, graduate students, and visiting scientists, the facility sponsors research in topics such as red tide, oil spills, climate trends, larval fish ecology, fish migrations, and more.

The Institute also includes the Fisheries and Mariculture Laboratory on 10 acres adjacent to the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. This facility has four large laboratories, which support research on the spawning and rearing of marine fish. In addition, the Institute is home to the Amos Rehabilitation Keep, which rescues and rehabilitates sea turtles and marine birds from San Jose and Mustang Island.

For more information visit: www.utmsi.utexas.edu/visit.