January 9 Speaker - Lance Robinson on Marine Aquaculture
Lance Robinson has worked for Texas Parks & Wildlife Division’s Coastal Fisheries Division for twenty-five years, first as the Galveston Bay Ecosystem Leader, as Regional Director for the upper Texas coast and currently as Deputy Division Director in Austin. During his career with the Coastal Fisheries Division he has been involved with fisheries independent and fisheries dependent monitoring programs for Texas’ marine resources and as Principal Investigator on several special projects ranging from evaluating bycatch reduction devices on commercial shrimp vessels to framework development for oyster aquaculture programs in Texas. He was responsible for establishing the Habitat Mapping and Oyster Restoration Program for TPWD which utilizes state of the art side scan sonar and habitat mapping sonar technology to map submerged bottoms of Texas inshore and offshore waters and coordinating oyster habitat restoration projects in Texas’ coastal bays. At present he is responsible for operational management of the eight ecosystem field stations as well as the three marine fish hatcheries located along the Texas coast and works on policy related issues for the Division. Prior to his employment with Texas Parks & Wildlife, Lance worked as research faculty at Auburn University’s Marine Research and Extension Center and was involved in several research efforts including pond and open-bay oyster mariculture projects, shrimp habitat assessment, and artificial reef monitoring. He holds a B.S. degree from Auburn University and a M.S. degree from Fairleigh Dickinson.