Rockport Marine Laboratory

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Rockport Marine Laboratory, right there in Aransas County. Now, most laboratories start with something a little more dignified than a houseboat. But this one?

This one started exactly that way. In 1935, the Rockport Marine Lab was set up aboard a houseboat called the Vivian, floating right there in Rockport Harbor. Its job was to assist the Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission with fisheries management.

Think about that for a second. The whole operation, the science, the recordkeeping, the future of Texas coastal fisheries, riding the tide on a boat named Vivian. There is something almost poetic about that, and something very Texas about it too.

You work with what you have, and you get it done. And they did. By 1947, the lab had earned itself solid ground.

A permanent lab was built on the harbor, and this wasn't just a step up from the Vivian. This was a state of the art facility, complete with a public aquarium. The work kept growin.

When the Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission merged into the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the lab shifted its support to that department's Coastal Fisheries Division, taking on the long-term management of fisheries populations, working to ensure sustainable stocks of finfish, shellfish, and other marine life important to both commerce and recreation along the Texas coast. All those years of research, all those measurements and samples and careful records, they added up to something. The lab's work has helped make Texas a national leader in marine fisheries management.

Not just a regional player. A national leader. All of it traceable, in one long unbroken line, back to a houseboat named Vivian, bobbing in Rockport Harbor in 1935.

What the marker says

In 1935, Rockport Marine Lab was set up aboard the houseboat "Vivian" in Rockport Harbor to assist the Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Commission with fisheries management. In 1947, a permanent lab was built on the harbor, a state of the art facility including a public aquarium. When the commission merged into the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept., the lab began support of its Coastal Fisheries Division in long-term management of fisheries populations to ensure sustainable stocks of finfish, shellfish and other marine life important to commerce and recreation. The lab's research over the years has helped make Texas a national leader in marine fisheries management. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011