South Padre Island Dolphin Research and Sea Life Nature Center

Our Mission Statement:

To educate the public regarding the bottlenose dolphins native to the Gulf of Mexico and South Padre Island in addition to promoting public support for the wildlife of our area.

Our Continued Goals:

• Eco tourism awareness on demands of eco tourism on nature and how to become eco friendly as a tourist or visitor to South Padre Island
• Promoting eco friendly souvenir shopping so that no marine life is harmed to sell as souvenirs.
• Exhibits and presentations on the effects of trash on wildlife
• Presentations on handling fish properly, importance of conservation, respecting nesting areas of local birds, trash disposal, watching wildlife
• Setting up a Bird Rehab center and information center
• Presentations on the conservation of migratory birds
• Touch tanks for children to learn about the importance of the marine life of South Padre Island and the Laguna Madre Bay
• Exhibits on Live Shell conservation efforts
• Programs on marine life, shore and migrant birds and local dolphin research taken to Rio Grande Valley schools including presentation of local made video, slides and live marine life
• Leading field trips for school children, university, elder hostel, tourists and families, church groups, boy and girl scouts and under privileged groups thru the center, with program on dolphin research, marine life, birding, conservation, eco-awareness and boat tour with beach walks, nature trail walks, addressing trash issues.
• Involving local residence in the nature center thru story telling hours and volunteer programs to promote awareness of the nature of South Padre Island and the need for conservation
• Promoting signage for city, county, and state areas sensitive to wildlife’s needs such as birding nesting areas, and trash impact areas
• Promoting community involvement for conservation issues and wildlife sensitive areas considering being disturbed for eco tourism
• Promoting eco education for tour boats and wave runner guides with special programs to involve them in awareness of wildlife especially our wild dolphins’ needs
• Educational exhibit of the dolphin identification research of eight years with the bottlenose dolphins of South Padre Island
• Presentations of understanding watching wild dolphins and the knowledge acquired of their social habits after eight years of research.
• Adopt a dolphin program for children to promote awareness of their role as eco tourist in the years to come with newsletters and website.
• As the needs of the Island wildlife grow with the growing numbers of tourists and the demands on wildlife there of the center will arise to these demands and put the wildlife’s interests foremost.
• To bring experienced groups in for presentation on their expertise to assist in understanding the diversity of the area.
• To set up scholarships for needy children with an interest in wildlife careers
• To set up summer schools for needy children that will benefit from nurturing with wildlife and nature.
• To set up programs for local schools to become involved with conservation of local wildlife and learning about local wildlife.
• To set up a website for the nature center that is informative and educational and interactive for classrooms
• To further study the bottlenose dolphins families of South Padre Island to better understand them as individuals and their roles in their family groups and promote their needs as wild dolphins
• To continue with filming and documenting our wild dolphins families
• Planting Butterfly gardens and birding habitat on the Island