The Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (HRI) opened two years ago and specializes in the study of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Concerned with issues such as the quality of marine environments and the conservation of marine habitats, HRI researchers are involved in a whole medley of marine science fields, working to become better acquainted with our watery backyard.

Starting this summer, HRI began connections with the new T-STEM (Texas Science Technology Engineering and Math) program at Moody High School, donating both its scientific resources and collected expertise to help further the education of students with an interest in the fields of science and math. The anticipated results? Eager young minds coupled with HRI’s activities should produce an interesting future for both students and scientists.

The Harte Research Institute is the culmination of former Corpus Christi -Caller Times editor Edward Harte’s $46 million endowment. The institute acts as a research center that provides international leadership in generating and disseminating knowledge about the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem and the role it plays in the economies of the North American region.

Sandra Alvarado (Graduate Research Assistant) and Suraida Nanez-James (Research Specialist), explain the role and activities of the institute, as well as new opportunities for this year’s new T-STEM students.

CorpusBeat: The Harte Research Institute (HRI) has a “tri-national responsibility” between the United States, Mexico and Cuba. What do Mexico and Cuba do to contribute to the mission and goals of HRI?
Suraida Nanez-James: HRI does a lot of collaboration with the University of Veracruz. Dr. Wes Tunnell is the main research scientist involved in this collaboration.

David Guggenheim (independent consultant in conservation policy and science) collaborates with the scientists in Cuba. They’re trying to work on getting some shark tissue samples transported to the U.S. to do some genetic analysis. Guggenheim works with the institute — he does turtle research with the students there — so he’s the main connection from the Harte to Cuba. [Wes] Tunnell’s the main connection to Mexico. They both have research facilities at universities, the Harte Institute is just the center point where we do the collaborations — more with Mexico than Cuba, because it’s still limited with the political stance that we have with them right now.

CB: What fields of study are undertaken at HRI?
Sandra Alvarado: We have three endowed chairs. Richard McLaughlin is the endowed chair for marine policy and law, and is involved in some issues with the Western Gap (a portion of the Gulf that doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of any of the surrounding countries, whether it is Cuba, Mexico, or the U.S.). He’s also involved with the law of the sea — it’s a consortium of legal experts in marine law who are working on understanding the development of international law for the world’s oceans. There are lots of oil reserves at stake in the Western Gap, therefore there is a lot of interest by the surrounding countries.

Another endowed chair is Dr. Tom Shirley, and he’s primarily involved in marine biodiversity and conservation science. Paul Montagna is the endowed chair for ecosystem studies and modeling.

A group of scientists are involved in identifying all of the different species in the Gulf of Mexico, this is a project titled “The Biodiversity of the Gulf of Mexico.” They’re compiling an inventory of all of the different living marine organisms that have been documented in literature and will be publishing it in a book. This inventory will also be converted into a database which will be available on the Internet for all to use.

CB: What kind of research is currently being done at HRI?
SA: Paul Montagna does a lot of sampling, both of water quality and the benthic environment (organisms that live in and on the surface of the bay bottom). He’s been monitoring Corpus Christi Bay and other Texas coastal bays for many years. He’s found some areas that are devoid of oxygen (anoxic), which is not good. If there isn’t any oxygen in the water, then the organisms can’t survive. He’s been researching a portion of the Corpus Christi Bay that exhibits these conditions, and is trying to identify what is causing them.

CB: Is that the kind of field research that new T-STEM (Texas Science Technology Engineering and Math) students of Moody High School will be exposed to?
SA: Yes, that’s definitely one aspect.

SNJ: Dr. Greg Stunz, Endowed Associate Research Professor for Oceans and Human Health, has various research projects involving fisheries. Other research varies from chemistry to geology, to remote sensing and so forth.

CB: Do you have any future plans for T-STEM students?
SA: As far as activities that we have planned for the future, we have a couple of existing programs that we would like to get the STEM students involved in. One is the Laguna Madre Field Station. The university has a cabin on the Laguna Madre, and that’s one of the resources that we’re going to offer the STEM teachers at the workshop later this month. It’s a resource that we’ll probably take advantage of. It has overnight housing facilities for students. We can take as many as 10 to 20 students and teachers out there and conduct research in the Laguna Madre. It’s a unique habitat, one of five hyper-saline lagoons in the world, and sitting right here in our backyard. One of the things we’d like to do is offer that as an opportunity for teachers to take the students out there and conduct field research, look at vegetation transects, look at the different zonation of the vegetation in the area, and maybe do some seining [fishing with a net].

Another possibility is working with Jay Tarkington. He has a Coastal Aquatics Education Program through the Center for Coastal Studies at [A&M University-Corpus Christi]. That would probably be a day trip to his Estes Education Station out in Redfish Bay. A third thing that we’re working on is writing proposals to try to get funding from local nonprofits to hire some of the T-STEM students that are interested in marine research. They would come in for a summer [eight weeks], get paid a stipend, and work on a part-time basis with some of our research scientists, either in their labs and/or in the field. We are currently looking at some local and state-wide foundations as potential sources of funding. We have submitted one proposal to the Coastal Bend Community Foundation, but we won’t know if we receive that funding until later this fall.

CB: When do you think they’d get to do these things?
SA: The idea is to try to get the students interested in a field of study in the marine sciences that they may pursue for their Capstone project their senior year at Moody High School. What we’re planning, if we get funding, is to aim at getting four interns next summer, in between their freshman and sophomore years.

CB: What would the interns be doing?
SA: It depends on the student’s interests. Some of the potential projects would be things like bay debris — there’s lots of trash in and around the area — and there are programs that have been studying trash for many years believe it or not. It’s one of many disciplines within the sciences and some of the funding entities are requesting proposals for projects that research the impact of debris on marine life. Perhaps if someone is interested in water chemistry they could look at a watershed and look at various pollutants and the impact that the pollutants have on water quality and marine life.

SNJ: Once they have the opportunity to see the different kinds of research that is conducted here, they should have a better idea of what peaks their interest.

SA: Geographic Information Science (GIS) looks at a geographic area spatially, say the watershed that drains into the Nueces River . It’s an interesting tool with lots of capabilities. One can look at the different plant and animal life in a watershed, the abiotic community, the water, the air, the climate, everything. It’s a really neat visual tool that you can use to analyze your data spatially.Istead of just looking at that one sampling point, this allows you to look at multiple sampling points in space and time.

SNJ: GIS is a way to put data into a visual picture that is simpler to interpret and understand … an analytical mapping software. … We have all these numbers, but you don’t really see it until you see it in a visual sense, and then it all comes together and you can say, “Oh, there’s a large population of this here,” or, “There’s a really high saline environment here.” Things like that.

CB: Are there any important discoveries or innovations that HRI made since it opened two years ago?
SA: I know Dr. Ian McDonald, an oceanographer, does a lot of really neat deep sea discovery and research, but I couldn’t tell you specifically. I know his research interests are in the biogeography of oil and gas seeps and gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico and there have been some discoveries made by him in these areas.

One of our Ph.D. students, Peter Etnoyer, got a live feed (a visual broadcast of the expedition while it’s happening) from an underwater submersible of the Secrets of the Gulf Expedition last spring. This expedition involved the US Navy NR1 nuclear submarine and the Argos tow sled. The purpose of the expedition was to survey the Flower Garden Banks region for paleo-shorelines and octocoral habitats at 100 meter depth. The Flower Gardens consists of two geological features that are located just 192 kilometers southeast of Galveston. This area earned its name due to its easily visible bright-colored reefs. Scientists on board the expedition ran these video transects, used to identify different species of coral, fish and crabs that live at depths that had not been studied in the past. It was a really amazing thing to see. The live feed was via the internet and could be seen by people with internet access across the country.

SNJ: What happened is there was an exploration going on, but it was seen nationally.

CB: Are there any other plans for the T-STEM students in the long term?
SA: Suraida and I would like to establish field experiences for the students into Mexico, maybe collaborate with some of the universities there. We both attended graduate school here (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and traveled quite a bit with the university into Mexico, to La Pesca, Veracruz and Cancun. We know the value of the experience, not just from a scientific perspective, but the culture, the language, the economy, the logistics involved in traveling there. As students, we learned a lot from the native people of that country and learned to appreciate what we have here in this country a lot more. We want for students involved with T-STEM to experience that as well.

SNJ: We also have the Estes Education Station by Jay Tarkington. It’s on Estes Flats. It’s just another different environment.

SA: It’s in Redfish Bay located just south of Aransas Bay.

SNJ: It’s not an enclosed area, but there are places for us to go and study different habitats. Although, it is not complete as of yet, it’s being used for teacher workshops and youth camps. This will give students the chance to see both the Laguna Madre and Estes Flats — two totally different habitats.

CB: Has the Harte Research Institute done any work concerning the preservation of the Gulf of Mexico’s barrier and coral reefs?
SNJ: Actually, that is one of the Associate Director Wes Tunnell’s big focuses right now.

SA: Gary Haralson, one of his Ph.D. students is actually looking at coral diseases and the causes of those diseases. There’s been some coral disease at the Flower Gardens. The Gulf [of Mexico] is traditionally flat and deep. It’s a salt dome. There’s an uplift of salt at the bottom of the Gulf, therefore, it’s not quite as deep in that area, which allows the light to penetrate. You have these Caribbean-like conditions right in the middle of the Gulf. It’s about a hundred miles offshore. You see corals and all the tropical fish there. It’s really a neat place and a popular recreational diving spot. Gary is also looking at some of the reefs farther south in Mexico in the Sian Kaan Biosphere Reserve in Quintana Roo.

SNJ: And research site.

SA: We have a master’s student, Brenda Catlin, who’s looking at another reef called Seven and Half Fathom Reef. It’s a couple of miles off Padre Island, down south from here. She’s redoing some of the studies that were done in the early 70s — some fish studies, looking at the different plant and animal life — and she’s comparing what’s there today to what was found there in past studies.

CB: What do you like best about working at the Harte Research Institute?
SNJ: We both like the international experience — hopefully we’ll get to go to Cuba one day. There is much room for growth here. We get the opportunity to think outside the box because nothing has been established yet. So, if we have an idea, it doesn’t get shot down right away. Dr. Wes Tunnell is supportive and is willing to listen to what we have to say. The people here are also willing to give of their time to participate in science education activities here at the HRI, making our work environment quite pleasant.

SA: Like with the T-STEM, we have all these great ideas, and we’re slowly looking for funding to try to implement our ideas because we see the value in it. HRI has a lot to offer to T-STEM students, we are optimistic that this educational partnership will benefit everyone involved.

SOURCES:  Sandra Alvarado, Suraida Nanez-James. Personal interview. 28 June 2007

Other HRI-related CorpusBeat.org articles:
Career Profile: Robert Furgason
Career Profile: Wes Furgason
Career Profile: Richard McLaughlin
Career Profile: Thomas Shirley
Q&A with Greg Stunz re: prop scars