Sea Center Texas

Tuesday some of the Sr. Adults from church went down to Lake Jackson to tour Sea Center Texas. This is a salt-water fish hatchery. It was rather interesting and different from the fresh water hatcheries that I've visited in the past.


First room -- several exhibits -- "touch tanks", an aquarium,
and a gift shop.

These large tanks are spawning tanks -- the fish inside (viewable through small windows) are "tricked" into spawning, even if it is out of season, and the eggs then pass through an opening and end up in a side tank that is open on top so that the eggs can be skimmed off every day. Then the eggs are put into special hatchery tanks to begin their growth into fingerlings. The different types of fish are kept in separate tanks, both inside and outside.

A Purple Martin.

Some of our group viewing the wetlands.

A child touching a spider crab in the "touch tank."

A wetlands resident

We had a guide who explained the entire process to us. One thing we heard was very interesting. He said that fish prefer to eat something that will fill their mouth. Therefore, you should always bait your hook with the size bait that would fit your target fish. A tiny minnow, for instance, would not work for a large mouth fish. I never knew bait size made a difference. Of course, I'm not much of a fisherman! Too boring for me.