About
Family-stewarded. Single species. 126 acres on Matagorda Bay.
Texas has always been a fishing state. From the Gulf bays to the inland reservoirs, the Redfish — Sciaenops ocellatus, known to most Texans simply as redfish — has been on the line, in the skillet, and at the center of a lot of good days for as long as anyone has kept records.
But the wild fishery has limits. Coastal pressure, weather extremes, and a redfish's slow road to maturity mean wild populations need help to keep up with demand. Imported substitutes can fill plates, but they can't tell a Texas story.
Turtle Creek Aquaculture was founded to close that gap from the land side. By raising Redfish in controlled, traceable conditions — with feed, water, and welfare we can measure to the gram and the part-per-million — we can deliver redfish to chefs and distributors year-round, and we can deliver healthy fingerlings to agencies and partners working to restore wild stocks.
We took our name from a working creek that runs through our property: a small, persistent body of water that supports turtles, fish, and the everyday life of a Texas landscape. The creek doesn't announce itself. It just keeps doing its work. We try to do the same.
Mission & vision
Mission
To raise the finest Redfish in Texas — responsibly, traceably, and at a scale that honors the water, the fish, and the people who depend on both.
Vision
A Texas where every redfish on a plate or in a waterway can be traced to a farm that left the land better than it found it.
Five values
Operational, not aspirational.
Five values, written so any team member can use them to make a decision when no one is watching.
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01
Stewardship over extraction
We are caretakers of the water, the species, and the land. If a practice depletes any of those three over time, we don't do it — even if it's legal, even if it's profitable, even if it's standard.
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02
Evidence over anecdote
Claims about quality, sustainability, and outcomes must be measurable and documented. If we can't prove it with data, we don't say it.
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03
Craft over commodity
Redfish is not a generic protein. We treat each batch as a craft product with provenance, seasonality, and character. Pricing, packaging, and storytelling all reflect that.
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04
Texas first, Texas loud
We are a Texas farm raising a Texas-native species for Texas tables and Texas waters. Regional pride is a feature, not a footnote.
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05
Transparent by default
Permits, test results, mortality data, sourcing — we share by default and redact only when legally required. Trust is built on what we volunteer, not what we hide.
Founder background
From Port Aransas to Panama to Palacios.
A 20-year arc through the Texas coast and offshore aquaculture, ending where it started — Matagorda Bay.
Nasir Kureshy · Founder
Owner Nasir Kureshy got his start in fisheries at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, where he earned an M.S. and spent time as a research assistant at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI), Port Aransas — Fisheries and Mariculture Lab.
He spent four years managing a redfish farm in San Leon, Texas, supplying Texas and Louisiana, then five years building offshore fish farms in the Bahamas, Panama, Puerto Rico, Belize, and Colombia — cobia, pompano, redfish. (One of those Panama farms is still in operation.)
In 2008, Nasir and his father purchased a 126-acre property on Matagorda Bay. Partner Sajjad Khan later joined. Permitting took roughly two years; construction began in 2010; full buildout was completed in 2020.
"We intend to go beyond the requirements of the regulatory agencies and enhance our natural ecosystem, instead of just maintaining it."
— Nasir Kureshy, in Voyage Houston
10 to 15 percent of the property is reserved for marine wetlands. That decision is the load-bearing wall of how we operate — water that comes in clean, water that leaves cleaner.
The name
Why "Turtle Creek."
The name Turtle Creek Aquaculture does three jobs at once:
- Place. "Turtle Creek" is the literal water feature on the property. A real place anchors a real brand.
- Ecosystem. The turtle is a sentinel species — present in healthy water, absent in compromised water. Naming it foregrounds environmental fitness.
- Profession. "Aquaculture" is the technical term for what we do. Including it signals to chefs, agencies, and regulators that we are a serious operation, not a hobby farm.
In casual marketing we shorten to Turtle Creek. In industry conversation we use TCA. In legal documents and contracts we use the full name.
Where we are
Palacios, Texas
- Address
- 7474 TX-35 S, Palacios, TX 77465
- County
- Matagorda
- Watershed
- Matagorda Bay · Texas Gulf Coast
- Property
- 126 acres
- Operating since
- 2010 (full buildout 2020)
- Farmed species
- Redfish (Sciaenops ocellatus) — single species
The cohort
Per a 2025 Texas Sea Grant feature, "Matagorda County hosts several prominent redfish farms, including Gulf States Aquaculture, Homegrown Seafood, and Turtle Creek Aquaculture." Per a 2025 USDA-funded commodity profile, eight of the nine commercial redfish farms in the United States are in Texas.
We are a Texas farm in a Texas industry. The story is regional all the way down.
Want to come see the farm?
Trade visits are welcome by appointment. Drive in via TX-35 S; we'll meet you at the office.