CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A message in a bottle. Coral. Sea beans. Even old dolls.
These are just some of the unusual items Jace Tunnell has found while beachcombing along the Gulf Coast. But he says every beach find is more than a curiosity — it's an opportunity to teach people about the Gulf.
"Every day that I go out to the beach, I find something new. I'm learning myself almost on a daily basis, and it's just a lot of fun. It's almost like a treasure hunt," Tunnell said.
Tunnell is the director of community engagement at the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
Now, the Harte Research Institute is getting a boost to keep that treasure hunt going. A $25,000 investment from Phillips 66 will help expand the beachcombing program through more school visits, educational outreach and its first-ever community beachcombing event this October on North Padre Island.
"Last year we actually went into about 75 different schools... and really making it interactive where students aren't just listening to something, they're actually being able to handle corals or big shells, messages in a bottle, things like that that we find washing in," Tunnell said.
The partnership will also help support the videos, beach reports and social media content that have made the program popular across the Texas coast.
"People love watching the beachcombing stuff. We have videos, newspaper articles, NPR segments... all that costs money to be able to do. Anytime somebody's able to come help support that like Phillips 66 is doing, it's gonna help us be able to continue that into the future," Tunnell said.
Tunnell says the ultimate goal isn't just to show off unusual beach finds — it's to help people better understand the coastal ecosystem.
"If people don't know about things that are out there, why would they want to protect them? Why should they care?… Bringing the things that people don't normally see to light so they can learn about them and ultimately want to protect them," Tunnell said.
Tunnell says the goal is to get more people engaged with the Texas coast, because understanding it is the first step to protecting it.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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