Join us for the Reserve’s 10th anniversary festival on National Estuaries Day! The festival will include hands-on activities where you can learn about the wonders of the oyster or discover why blue crabs can be crabby. Partner organizations will also be on-site with educational booths and fun activities. There will be speaker presentations throughout the day talking about specific projects that are helping us understand the estuary. The festival will conclude with a cake-cutting ceremony and volunteer clean-up activity on the South Jetty. Come over and enjoy some cake while learning about the wonders of our estuary and why it is the nursery of the sea. This festival is free and open to the public and is a partnership from many local organizations focused on our coasts and estuaries. 

Schedule of Events:

Educational booths with hands-on activities will be set up throughout the day by the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Animal Rehabilitation Keep, Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Surfrider Foundation, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi Center for Coastal Studies, Texas State Aquarium, and the National Park Service.

12:00-12:30        Introduction to Event/Updates

12:30 -1:00         Ode to an Oyster (activity)

1:00-1:30             Meet and Greet animals of the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (presentation)

1:30 - 2:00           Why are blue crabs crabby? (activity)

2:00-2:30             Marine Debris Project (presentation)

2:30-3:00             Drone Demos-connect with Marine Debris (presentation)

3:00-3:30             Restoration show and tell by the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program

3:30-4:00             Cake Cutting

4:00-5:00             Jetty cleanup (South Jetty starting by UTMSI research pier)

The festival is sponsored by The University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Animal Rehabilitation Keep, Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Surfrider Foundation, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi Center for Coastal Studies, Texas State Aquarium, and the National Park Service.