Our Mission

OCO’s mission is to enrich our educational experience with research supporting sustainable fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, currently focusing on billfish and tarpon.

Oceanic Conservation Organization is a 501(c)(3) foundation located in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2002 by James W. Heldt, his wife, Karen, and Mary Jo Bogatto, its mission is to fund research on billfish and tarpon, primarily by the deployment of Pop-up Archival Tags (PAT), which are small computers attached to a caught fish. As the fish swims, the PAT records data such as water temperature, salinity, depth, temperature, and location. Programmed to release at a given time, the PAT sends a signal to a satellite which downloads the information and forwards the data to OCO scientists. As regional organization, OCO’s primary focus is on the Gulf of Mexico and Cuba.

The cost of one PAT is $6,000, including satellite data download. We need many more than one to successfully conduct our research. Although recent breakthroughs using DNA swabs to track these magnificent fish have reduced the cost of tracking them, unless the person catching the fish has swabs on board, there is no manner to determine where it came from or how much it has grown. The utilization of PATs is essential to the study of these fish.