the way through the weekend.
>> All right, Anthony, thank
you. This summer, KPRC 2 plus,
helping you find some fantastic
places to visit for a last-minute road trip. Yes,
last-minute road trip. Yes,
our last stop this morning, the
Texas State Aquarium in Corpus
Christi, the largest aquarium
in the state. Only about a 3
hour drive from here in Houston
and tell us all about it. President and CEO of the Texas
President and CEO of the Texas
State Aquarium, Jesse Gilbert,
a good morning. Justin, good to
see you.
>> Good morning, guys. Are you
doing good? We’re excited to
learn more about this. So what can guests expect to experience
can guests expect to experience
when they visit the Texas State
Aquarium?
>> Sure. So we’re a short drive
away from Houston about 3, 3, and a half hours into its a
and a half hours into its a
great experience to come for or
a half to 3 quarters of the
day. We have a lot to see.
So we’ve got our Gulf of Mexico
exhibit the talks about the
animals that you’re fine in the
Gulf of Mexico. Fish, birds and invertebrates, you know, and
invertebrates, you know, and
our Caribbean journey, which
has a full jungle urge filming
goes mammals. You can see our
shirts about. But like I mean,
you’re in our Caribbean Sea
exhibit. We’ve got a splash
party can cool down. Get out of
this. This Texas seat for a
bit. We’ve got 40 theaters.
You can go and you can film on
a major and see how things work
in the Gulf of Mexico. So it’s
a really, really exciting time
to come. We’ve got a lot of air
conditioning, a lot of good,
too. So it’s a nice, a nice
road trip.
>> Yeah, boy, so many different species. What are some of the
species. What are some of the
crowd favorites? Jesse?
>> Well, certainly dolphins us
you can come. You can see LANA
bottle, nose dolphins. I better
golfer may That’s by far the
most popular. We talk about the Dolphins and then also our our
Dolphins and then also our our
golf rehabilitation program.
Before we go, you can get a
personal affirming goes.
You can see the plumbing goes
up through the weekend. You can
actually start with the sharks
behind me. So we have a we have a Just kind of timely Sharpie
a Just kind of timely Sharpie
pretty good. And you can see
these animals up close and
personal. You can see how they
the moves in the water but
still be safe. So there’s a lot
and there there’s about 4,000
animals here at the port.
That does everything from golf
and all the way down the hermit
crabs and sea urchins there.
There’s quite a bit.
>> You had me at snorkeling
with the Sharks. What what is
the experience like would
impose say when they get out
of that? I mean, that must be
the experience of a lifetime.
>> You know, it’s and it’s incredible so that I took my
incredible so that I took my
mother-in-law and a it’s a it’s
a experience to get in with,
you know, with the sharks.
Again, there’s a cage there.
So it’s really, really save.
You can see these animals from
it kind of takes your breath away. Know the first time you
away. Know the first time you
get in with the with the 6 or 7
port shark like this, it, you
know, there’s there’s that,
you know, you kind of tense
feeling, but it’s an incredible
time. I want people kind of
get past one that temperature the water and then to the
the water and then to the
sharks. We might see an
incredible experience. It’s
about 15 goes by really, really
quick because you’re just
you’re immersive these animals.
You’re immersed with the fish.
It’s it’s a pretty special experience.
>> You know, we all want to
take
her mother-in-law Yeah, it is.
You like it. >> She loved, you know, we were
>> She loved, you know, we were
you. She was sticking her legs
out of the cage. We have and
really trying to try to was
really that she will. She will
have charged the she she kind of like most people I think had
of like most people I think had
this, you know, this little bit
of fear in the back of your
mind about shards and kind of
what you see. And so when you
see him like this and you see
him swing by their peaceful,
it really kind speaks that to what they are in the ecosystem
what they are in the ecosystem
that they’re important. They’re
not dangerous. So she had she
had a really, really been to.
>> Forgive me if you mentioned
it, is there an age limit to that experience?
that experience?
>> And there is I believe it’s
12 side just because of the
depth of the water. You have to
be able to swim a little bit to
get out there. But you can just
go in with a snorkel swan.
See, you don’t have that any
special scuba license or anything like that. It really
anything like that. It really
is a pretty incredible cool
>> part of Texas experiencing
record heat parts of Texas.
But I feel like the whole state
right field is that this record
heat right now in you’re not just an aquarium, but you also
just an aquarium, but you also
have a splash park to give us
some breakthroughs.
Temperatures.
>> We do. So we have major news
flash for you can go down.
You can cool from this Texas seat. I’ll tell you, I was I
seat. I’ll tell you, I was I
watched it this weekend.
I mean, people are flooding
to the Splash Park. it’s a it’s
kind of a nice There’s a
restaurant down there. You can
said have a have a the damage drinking and just kind of relax
drinking and just kind of relax
and let the sea breeze, which
is so even though it’s hot
impressing, you get that
Seabreeze got the Splash Park.
It’s it’s a nice relaxing afternoon.
>> Now we’re reading on your
website. You guys have
operating since 1990. That’s a
pretty good run. And, you know, typically we think of whether
typically we think of whether
it’s a zoo and aquarium in this
case promoting learning
Survation advocacy
Rehabilitation of Wildlife.
Were you guys fall into that
category? >> You know, so we were really
>> You know, so we were really
fortunate. We’ve had a lot of
support in South Even operate
about 32 years. We’ve had a
wildlife rescue program since
1995. It’s one of the largest,
a wildlife rescue programs,
coastal wildlife rescue programs in the state. One of
programs in the state. One of
the one of the largest in the
country and we take everything
in for marine mammals,
dolphins, manatees, sea
turtles, birds. And it’s a really active Last year we
really active Last year we
probably saw some are unable to
2000 patients. So it’s a very,
very active program. What’s
interesting about the wildlife
rescue program is it’s a good
vehicle to to to use for
education so we can we can get
students and get them
interested in science,
technology, engineering and
math for those diversified
careers and it’s an incredible we’re really proud that we just
we’re really proud that we just
got activated last week.
There’s a loggerhead sea turtle
issue going on in Texas beaches
where they’re straining and
larger numbers than normal.
And so these are large large sea turtles, about 15200 pounds
sea turtles, about 15200 pounds
there. Luckily, there’s coming
a seat and so we can we can get
them some food and I think part
of it is the high winds that
we’re experiencing is challenging for him. But it’s a
challenging for him. But it’s a
it’s an incredible program that
we’re really, really proud of
in this time. Next year.
We’ll have a new wildlife
rescue center. So all the work
that we do on an offside campus
will now be in in a new
building on campus. And some
guests we actually be able to
see all this work happening
within the veterinarian to
doing surgeries. They’re doing
treatment, whatever it might
be. You as a guest will
actually be able to see right
there on site.
>> And that’s incredible.
And really quickly, what what
other V I p experiences you
mentioned starting with starkly
with the start. But at
guest experiences.
>> We have. So you can connect
you. Can we even be the
flamingos, which which is
really a pretty incredible
experience. It’s probably one
of the one of the most popular
that we have. But we give you a ball. You can go. You can
a ball. You can go. You can
get really, really close and
personal. The Caribbean
flamingos. We have a we have an
experience for. We’ll take you
back. We’ll show you how the
fish out of the operation takes
place. You can go back and see
how we prepare die. It’s how we take care of the water and
we take care of the water and
you can actually feel a lot of
the fish. You can feed
stingrays. So we have an
experience or you can go and
you can get up in a personal
account of stingrays in the
land of Stingrays. There’s a lot of different experiences
lot of different experiences
and if you’re in the birds, we
have that historical charge.
You can stingrays or there’s
quite a bit.
>> Yeah, definitely. You want to encounter the sting Ray in
to encounter the sting Ray in
the aquarium? Not like I did
out in the Gulf.
>> Still, that is Yes, yes.
So we we make sure they’re safe
when we make sure we take the
bar bought the added safety experience much better trying
experience much better trying
to interact with them while
we would we how do they do it
right? Go down to a dozen
before you go or where can
folks get more information on
all this? >> So Texas State Aquarium DOT
>> So Texas State Aquarium DOT
or is the best place to go to
see what’s going on with
presentations to see what and
it often shows are something
different. The IP in our hours
and we look forward to seeing everybody could use.
everybody could use.
>> That’s great with my family.
Loves to head down the We love
Corpus is so much to do.
Thanks for your time. Really
appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
Appreciate it.
>> Jesse Gilbert, CEO of the
Texas State Aquarium. We
appreciate you and advocacy