Texas State Aquarium to open new wildlife rescue facility

Ashlee Burns, Corpus Christi Caller Times
·3 min read

The Texas State Aquarium will in March unveil its new Port of Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue, which will be the largest coastal wildlife rescue facility in Texas.

The Texas State Aquarium's wildlife rescue program began in 1995. Since then, the program has operated out of a small warehouse building on Rincon Road owned by the Port of Corpus Christi. The program has released more than 4,000 animals back into their natural habitat since its inception.

A construction crew uses a remote controlled robot to compact the ground for paving, surrounding the public entrance to the Texas State Aquarium's new Port of Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue, on Jan. 27, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
A construction crew uses a remote controlled robot to compact the ground for paving, surrounding the public entrance to the Texas State Aquarium's new Port of Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue, on Jan. 27, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

"In about 2019, we started putting a plan together to design and ultimately build the new center," longtime Texas State Aquarium President and CEO Jesse Gilbert said. "The Port of Corpus Christi Wildlife Rescue Center will house our wildlife rescue program, which is one of the largest in the country, and it will also house our workforce development program and our research program at the aquarium."

In 2021, the aquarium began construction on a new 26,000-square-foot wildlife rescue center on the aquarium's existing campus. The aquarium will no longer use its original wildlife rescue facility following the completion of the new one.

"The most exciting part is that people will be able to walk through and see all of this work," Gilbert said.

A construction worker walks past the treatment room at the Texas State Aquarium's new Port of Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue on Jan. 27, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. The room shares a wall with the surgery room. It will be used to to change patients' bandages, administer medication and perform CT scans and X-rays.
A construction worker walks past the treatment room at the Texas State Aquarium's new Port of Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue on Jan. 27, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. The room shares a wall with the surgery room. It will be used to to change patients' bandages, administer medication and perform CT scans and X-rays.

According to Gilbert, the project was funded by donors, including the Port of Corpus Christi, the Dobson Family of Foundations, the city of Corpus Christi, the ExxonMobil Foundation, Catherine and Bob Hilliard, the state of Texas, The Brown Foundation, Valero and the Earl C. Sams Foundation.

The new center, set to become the largest in Texas and one of the largest in the country, will be the only Texas wildlife rescue facility permitted to treat marine mammals, raptors, shorebirds and sea turtles. The center will feature state-of-the-art veterinary medical equipment, an interpretive gallery, an emergency operations center and the only CAT scan used for wildlife in Texas.

Construction workers prepare the tank stand in the sea turtle hospital at the Texas State Aquarium's new Port of Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue on Jan. 27, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Visitors will be able to view patients through large windows. The most common cause of a turtle beaching is entanglement, said Kara Hahn, projects and exhibits manager for the aquarium.

Gilbert said the center will have capacity for 3,000 sea turtles at a time, making it the largest sea turtle capacity in the country.

"If we had a big cold stun event like we did in Winter Storm Uri in 2021 or if we had a big hurricane event, the rescue center will have the largest capacity of sea turtles in the entire country," Gilbert said. "Corpus Christi, the Coastal Bend and, really, the state of Texas is leading the way in sea turtle conservation."

Gilbert hopes the center will spark interest in the next generation of Texans who may be interested in wildlife conservation careers.

"Texans can watch these endangered species be rehabilitated and can be there when that sea turtle is put back into the Gulf of Mexico, so it's a unique opportunity that doesn't really happen anywhere else along the Gulf of Mexico coast," Gilbert said. "It's really one of the only ones in the country where guests can get that type of view."

The aquarium will host a grand opening for the new wildlife rescue center on Thursday, March 2, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The event coincides with Texas Independence Day and the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, which protects fish and wildlife listed as threatened or endangered.

The center will be free for public viewing, and all aquarium ticket sales will fund the wildlife rescue center's conservation efforts.

"When people come, they can have a great time at the aquarium but they can also know that they are directly saving endangered species," Gilbert said.

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Texas State Aquarium to open new wildlife rescue facility