El-shaped walls marched into the gallery, each of the five wrangling the seminal research funded in one of those five decades. A timeline on the long wall tracked research papers, dollars spent, major environmental events, and covers of Texas Sea Grants outreach magazine.

Everything’s bigger in Texas! Even the shrimp which form a gateway to an area celebrating Texas’ unique sea and coastal life. To the right is a walk through shrimp net interactive mimicking a sea turtle’s experience when caught up in a shrimp net – spoiler alert, the turtle survives because of the net’s Turtle Excluder Device pioneered by Texas Sea Grant.

In an area that focuses on farm-raised oysters, one wall is covered with actual oyster shells embedded in custom colored matrix. dollars spent, major environmental events, and covers of Texas Sea Grants outreach magazine.

A widely viewed video from 2015 shows a straw embedded in a sea turtle’s nostril – the researcher was working for Texas Sea Grant! This exhibit with a motion activated video shows clips from that experience plus gut content found by researchers in dead sea turtles. dollars spent, major environmental events, and covers of Texas Sea Grants outreach magazine.

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is the northern-most coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico. This exhibit case shows looping video of the reefs, photos from the early research cruises plus dive gear used on those voyages of discovery. dollars spent, major environmental events, and covers of Texas Sea Grants outreach magazine.