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Texas A&M Approves $29.8 Million Sea Turtle Hospital in Galveston
Regents approved construction of the 13,900-square-foot Cheryl Mellenthin Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital and Educational Outreach Center at Texas A&M University at Galveston, with work set for December 2026 to October 2028.
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents on Nov. 12 approved construction of the $29.8 million Cheryl Mellenthin Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital and Educational Outreach Center at Texas A&M University at Galveston. Construction is scheduled to begin in December 2026 and be completed in October 2028. The hospital will be able to treat up to 30 turtles at a time.
The approved budget rose from $23 million to about $29.8 million. According to the system's announcement, the increase completes spaces that had been lower on the priority list and is covered by an additional $6.7 million in grant funding and $67,610 in gifts. The added scope restores both patient wards, an ambassador turtle tank and clinical space.
Funding and expanded scope
Funding includes about $19.7 million in restoration grants tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act funds, awarded through the Texas General Land Office. Private gifts account for about $8.6 million, and $1.5 million comes from the Permanent University Fund.
The largest gift came from Cheryl Mellenthin, who has given $8.55 million through the Mark A. Chapman Foundation. Regents unanimously voted in August 2025 to name the facility for her; it had been called the Upper Texas Coast Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital and Educational Outreach Center. The university said at the time that contributions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Texas General Land Office and the Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees helped it reach its original $23 million fundraising goal.
Patient care and visitor facilities
The new building will total about 13,900 square feet, with more than 85% of usable space devoted to patient care. Plans include two patient wards, clinical procedures space, nutrition and laundry areas, and a life support monitoring room. The design will allow staff to isolate turtles infected with fibropapillomatosis, a contagious virus that causes tumors.
Visitor areas include an ambassador turtle lounge and a viewing gallery, and the center projects more than 150,000 visitors a year. The university has described the facility as combining public exhibition areas with clinical and hospital space, including ambassador tanks holding healthy turtles that cannot be released.
The hospital will be operated by the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research, founded in 2019 by Regents Professor of marine biology Christopher Marshall. The center is the federally permitted lead for sea turtle rescue, recovery and rehabilitation on the upper and middle Texas coast and has responded to more than 500 turtles. It now works out of a 1,700-square-foot building at the campus Wetlands Center, where nearly 300 turtles have been treated.
All sea turtle species are listed as threatened, endangered or critically endangered, including the Kemp's ridley, the official state sea turtle of Texas. The center was created as a partnership of Texas A&M University, the National Park Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Research and education
"When a sea turtle washes up hurt on the upper Texas coast, Texas A&M at Galveston is the first call," Board Chairman Robert Albritton said. "This board just gave them a hospital to match, and most of it is paid for with restoration grants and private gifts."
"This is a teaching hospital first," Chancellor Glenn Hegar said. "Students at our Galveston campus will learn marine biology with a patient in front of them, not just a textbook." The system's announcement did not name an architect or contractor for the project.
