Dr. Joan Holt
Professor Emerita, Department of Marine Science, The University of Texas
About Dr. Joan Holt
Dr. Holt worked at UTMSI from 1960-2013 in the field of fish ecology and mariculture with major emphasis on larval fish, including Redfish, Spotted Seatrout, and many tropical fishes. She served on a National Academy of Sciences Panel: Marine Aquaculture in the United States.
She organized and took part in many birding competitions in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Great Birding Classic that began in 1997, with youth teams and adult competitions. She helped develop the Port Aransas Birding Center and Paradise Pond in the 1990s, now known as the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center and the Joan and Scott Holt Paradise Pond. These sites and the Port Aransas Nature Preserve have received, over the years, many Great Texas Birding Classic Conservation Grants for habitat restoration, acquisition, or enhancement projects.
Dr. Holt received her B.S. and M.A. in Biology from the University of Texas at Arlington and her Ph.D. in Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University. She has received numerous awards, including the Harvey Weil Sportsman Conservationist Award, Coastal Bend Bays Foundation’s Chairman’s Award for Tarpon Tomorrow, and Coastal Bend Bays & Estuary Program’s Certificate of Environmental Leadership.