Passport to Texas

Tony Amos. Image: Earl Nottingham, TPWD.

TPW Magazine: Remembering Tony Amos Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Shortly after Anthony “Tony” Amos joined the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas in 1976, he began patrolling a seven-mile stretch of beach every other day.

That’s how Melissa Gaskill begins her article for the July issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine; it’s a tribute to Tony Amos, a man who lived and shared his passion for the understanding and conservation of marine life.

He passed away in September of 2017, but his legacy lives on among those who knew him and worked with him. Melissa writes: One of Amos’s best-known achievements is the Animal Rehabilitation Keep, or ARK, which came about somewhat by accident.

He came across oiled birds and sea turtles on his beach patrols after a 1979 oil spill in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche, and brought them to the MSI campus… building shelters for the birds and putting the sea turtles in unused tanks.

That ad hoc effort grew into a thriving marine wildlife rehabilitation facility with a sea turtle building and outdoor bird enclosures. The MSI renamed it the Amos Rehabilitation Keep in August, 2016.

Read Melissa Gaskill’s story about Tony Amos’ life and legacy in the words of those who knew him, in the July issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. On newsstands now.

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For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.