My 10yo received his acceptance notification a week or two ago. I attended 30+ years ago, but it looks like things have changed quite a bit since then. Anyone have kids who have attended in the past few years?

If you don't know about it and have middle school aged kids who are interested in fish and marine life, you should check it out. www.tamug.edu/seacamp/ Kids spend a week living on the TAMUG campus, seining the bays and marshes around Galveston, then studying their catch. We caught some small sharks, stone crabs, pipe fish, seahorse, etc.

Our son did it when he was about 16 (so probably different program) and he LOVED it.

My 10-year old is doing that camp this summer. I guess they stay at the Sea Star base. He's super excited and it sounds like an awesome time- fishing, learning to kayak, and even learning to sail small craft like Sunfish or Lasers.

Hell, I wish I could go.

Do they let adults go? Asking for a friend.

That looks to be a little different that what my son is doing - looks more activity based, which he would enjoy, too. If you think about it, give an update after it's over. Could be something fun for next year.

Both my daughters did it up until last year. Lots of activities, some are better than others. Overall they enjoyed it. I think my youngest would still enjoy it today. It's a great camp and program to get them learning about marine life early.

Last summer was the first year my daughter didn't go in 5 or 6 years. She did the Costa Rica trip the summer before last. She enjoyed them all. Costa Rica was obviously the best. She is graduating High School this spring and will be TAMU C/O '25. I highly recommend it for all kids interested in life science.

My daughter went for 2 summers back in about 2006-2007. She is a science nerd and already wanted to be a vet and she really enjoyed it for the science and learning background. Both the War Department and I started down there so it was also fun to hear her talk about the experience. The skeeters had gotten bigger, smarter, and more numerous.

The Ghost of DUCK01 said:

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That looks to be a little different that what my son is doing - looks more activity based, which he would enjoy, too. If you think about it, give an update after it's over. Could be something fun for next year.

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Looks like you're right. His camp isn't at TAMUG but the Sea Star Galveston base.

Both my kids (7 and 11) are doing a course from June 28-30. They've done it a few times over the years and love it. They were disappointed last year was cancelled so we made certain to get on the list early this year.

Mine's doing the Sharks & More camp the week of July 25th.

Curious how it's changed. Did it about 30 years ago and it was an absolute blast. We seined a salt water marsh and snagged a 3-4 foot bull shark. That was fun. Mom had a conniption when I told her about that when I got home.....

My daughter did something similar a few years ago, but if they'd caught a bull shark that would've been the end of it with my wife.

Did they make you wear those silly orange life vests 30 years ago when wading in 6" of water like they do now?

Nope. They just said "shuffle your feet" and off we went into some fairly nasty water. We were chest deep when we pulled up a couple of sharks.

I remember finding the remnants of some raunchy porn mag in the weeds when we were walking into Christmas Bay.

Loved my SeaCamp experience back in 2001 right before my senior year. Ended up going to TAMUG and studying Marine Fisheries.

I am curious as well. I did it three years in a row from 91-93.

Bump to update. My 10yo finished a one week session (Adventures in Marine Biology) three weeks ago and loved it. He was really sad to have to leave on Friday. He's fairly reserved, but has told damn near everyone who will listen about it.

We're taking him back tomorrow for a week of "Sharks and More." He was originally booked for a later session, but was so pumped after his first one that he wanted to go back sooner. By chance, they had opened another session after main registration and it wasn't full, so we were able to bump him to an earlier date.

From the pictures I saw, it's a lot like it was 30 years ago. They even still do the pizza/swim party with the diving competition. The motel style dorm I was in has since been torn down, so the kids are now in a newer hotel style dorm. It's far from "new," but it's newer than what we stayed in at the time.

For anyone with kids interested in marine biology or the outdoors in general, get them in a session next Summer. It's cheap ($900 for a one week session) - that includes meals and everything. The only extra cost is whatever you want to send with them for vending machine snacks or souvenirs from the Strand.

Like others on this thread I remember doing it as a kid and loving it. My niece just did it (last week?) and seemed to have a blast.

Man I had totally forgotten about this. I went a couple times as a kid. I'll definitely be signing up my kids next year

Don't mean to hijack the thread but have to share this. In 2014 my wife set up a field trip for my daughter's HS marine biology class for which she and I were a chaperones pop. First day we went to the Tx Ag experiment station in Corpus Christi for a couple of interesting experiments but then went to the Texas State Aquarium for an after hours tour behind the scenes, dinner in the aquarium lobby and then they got to spend the night in front the aquarium of their choice after a scavenger hunt (winner got the the large oil rig/shark tank for the night). Boys and girls in separate night groups. Next morning we had breakfast there in the main lobby and then went to TAMU CC campus for a tour of the marine biology dept before going out on their shrimp trawler dropping shrimp nets and scooping up fish, shrimp, crabs and dropping the contents onto tables. Also scooped up oysters and tons of shells. One was a live 12 inch conk-like shell in CC Bay. Awesome trip!

So my 10-year old did the Sea Star Base camp a couple weeks ago and loved it. They learned to sail these little 2-man "Pico" sailboats, how to recover if you capsized one (which happens regularly), kayaking, and even some introductory seamanship stuff like knots and charts. They worked on learning sailing rigging and so forth. After some lessons they got to sail the little Picos by themselves out in Offatt's Bayou with counselors supervising in chase skiffs. They got to sail some bigger stuff with counselors on board. They fished a lot but it was limited to stuff off their pier. He wants to go again next summer.