We face many challenges in maintaining healthy sportfish populations. These threats include a changing environment that is seeing diminished freshwater inflows to estuaries; habitat loss due to coastal development; and increasing fishing pressure. The Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation uses science to address the most critical issues and problems affecting sport fisheries today. Our team is ready to take on the challenges facing the recreational fishing industry along the Texas coast and the Gulf of Mexico.
In oceanic ecosystems, large sharks function as top predators, and their abundance and distribution patterns may have cascading effects on the ecosystems they inhabit.