This fall a dynamic husband and wife team, Dr. Brad Erisman and Ms. Kristin Evans, moved to Port Aransas Texas from San Diego California and they bring with them a wealth of expertise and knowledge about fisheries and marine education.
Dr. Erisman is a highly accomplished marine biologist joining the University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Dr. Erisman is a superb addition to the UTMSI tradition of internationally acclaimed field fisheries science and scientists such as Drs. Connie Arnold, Joan and Scott Holt. Dr. Erisman’s areas of special interest are fish population structure and function, reproductive biology and behavior, and most intriguingly fish spawning aggregations. His many accomplishments include founding a 20 institution bi-national research program to define connections between marine ecosystems and human-use activities in the Gulf of California in Mexico, which informs sustainable management and conservation practices for productive fisheries in the region. He will incorporate this experience and others as he continues his work with a new focus on the Gulf of Mexico, and in fact, has already begun working with our local Saltwater Fisheries Enhancement Association (SEA).
Ms. Kristin Evans was successfully recruited to the Texas State Aquarium and is the aquarium’s new Dean of Curriculum and Instruction. Kristin brings over twenty years of experience in zoo and aquarium education, and was most recently the Director of Education at Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Birch Aquarium is one of the best in California and receives over 410,000 visitors each year. Kristin is well prepared and has expertise in free-choice learning, informal science education, ocean and earth science education. You can visit the Texas State Aquarium and see some of Kristin’s work with the advancement of the aquarium’s Flint Hills Resources Center for Excellence in STEM Education program.
The Coastal Bend region, as well as the State of Texas, has much to celebrate by this dynamic duo’s arrival. When asked about the couple, Dr. Robert Dickey (Director of UTMSI) had high praise, saying that “We are honored to have Brad and Kristin join us at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute and Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. They are an extremely talented and gracious couple with much to offer the Texas Coastal Bend and the world in marine research and education.”