Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

At the end of January, two vessels collided in the port of Port Arthur; one was an oil tanker carrying crude, the other a barge towing ships.

This is the largest spill that Port Arthur’s seen in a very long time.

Winston Denton is a Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist who was at the site of the January 23 incident.

The Eagle Otome is an oil tanker; it was coming into Port Arthur [when the accident occurred]. Okay, we’re looking at the barge that was involved in the collision with the ship. The barge just hit it and went right inside the ship.

It’s estimated that 450-thousand gallons of crude spilled into the water… which translates to approximately 11-thousand barrels of oil.

Prior to this, what we considered a large spill was two to three thousand barrels; and this is, like, four times that.

Hundreds of people, including from parks and wildlife and the US coast guard, mobilized to mitigate damages and clean the spill. Booms stopped oil from migrating down the intercostal waterway into sensitive wetlands. More than a dozen animals died from the spill, but others were trapped, cleaned and saved.

That’s one more…I think he’ll make it.

At the time we recorded this show, oil sheen remained on the water.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Oils Well That Ends Well? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Since 2002, twenty-six thousand derelict crab traps have been hauled from Texas bays.

Through our program we have documented over forty species of organisms that are caught in these traps that include game fish, and commercially important fish, and even Diamond back terrapins which are a species of special concern.

That’s Art Morris is a biologist with Coastal Fisheries. He says Parks and Wildlife is gearing up for the annual Crab Trap clean up, February 19-28. Volunteers are needed.

Anybody can volunteer, however, we primarily need people with boats, and particularly air boats. But there are jobs for people that don’t have a boat. We need people to unload boats; we need people to maybe sometimes to go out with people that will have crew members to go out with them. We’ll provide gloves; we’ll have tarps for boats. You don’t need to sign up for anything. We would like you to call ahead of time so we can get an estimate of how many people are going to come to that site. Most of our work’s going to be done in San Antonio bay, north, because that’s where most of the crabbing effort goes on. But anybody can volunteer, and they can do it on their own—anytime from February 19 through 28th.

The main cleanup event is February 20 from 8:00 to noon; check the TPW website for details. Morris warns to remove traps only during Feb. 19-28 as it is illegal all other times as traps are private property.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Abandoned Crab Trap Cleanup Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

There are ghosts in the gulf that silently trap and kill thousands of marine species annually.

They are a perpetual trapping machine. When something gets caught in there, it has nothing to eat and it dies, and it becomes bait and it attracts other fish and other organisms.

That’s Art Morris…ghost buster. Actually, he’s a biologist with Coastal Fisheries. The entities he’s after are abandoned crab traps…adrift in the gulf…ghost fishing.

And one of the key things about this, because they’re targeting for crabs, that’s the number one species that we see—the targeted organisms is what we’re losing to these derelict traps.

Weather and vandalism are the primary reasons why traps end up adrift, indiscriminately ensnaring crustaceans and other sea life. Morris says since 2002, twenty-six thousand of these A.W.O.L. traps have been hauled from Texas bays.

A single trap can kill 26 blue crabs per trap per year. And we can extrapolate those numbers out and we estimate somewhere in the area of half million blue crabs are saved through this program alone—or have to date.

Morris hasn’t removed these traps alone—he’s had a lot of help from volunteers during annual crab trap clean ups. Your chance to help rid the gulf of ghost fishing happens later this month…and we’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

That’s our show…with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Abandoned Crab Traps Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories

If you don’t think fishing makes memories, then you haven’t heard Scott Harris of Austin tell his real life fish story of the boy and the barracuda.

On one of my first deep sea fishing trips with my oldest son, in the gulf, out of Port Aransas, he wouldn’t concentrate. He was just playing with his bait, just up under the boat; nowhere near have the 230 or so feet where we were bottom fishing. And I was just about to admonish him to, you know, drop your bait down and see if you can catch a nice snapper. And I was looking at his bait bouncing on the water, just ten or fifteen feet below the boat, and a barracuda longer than him shot up like a lightening bolt and engulfed his bait, and zoomed up in an arc, and jumped and he reeled it in all by his tiny self. And we gaffed it and pulled it on the boat; and all the grown men jumped up on the benches as it was thrashing and gnashing the needle-sharp teeth. And, it was a beautiful fish that’s back out there now to give someone else a thrill. And it’s a story that comes up every single time we’re in a group of people who love to fish. Fishing makes great memories.

If you have an outdoor memory you’d like to share, do so at passporttotexas.org.

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

Outdoor Story: The Boy and the Barracuda Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration Program

Everyone likes a little praise now and then. And anglers—young or old—get it when they submit details of their catch to the Angler Recognition Program.

Everybody gets something. If it qualifies for no records or awards at all, you’ll get an outstanding angler certificate which is frameable. And all children get some type of pin; an angler recognition pin that’s our logo.

Joedy Gray oversees the program, and says he especially wants see kids getting involved.

I’m trying to encourage youth to get out there. A lot of kids will catch their first fish—maybe a two or three inch sunfish—and if they weigh that on certified scales, it will be water body record in a lot of instances.

If you’re going for a water body record, you will need a certified scale, but not if you’re submitting your fish for a catch/release total length record.

So that way you don’t need to weigh it. You just need to take a picture of the fish next to a tape measure. Then turn the fish loose and it will be eligible for a state record or a water body record. That opens all the bay systems up, and that opens up all the reservoirs to possibilities of records for both adults and juniors.

Find everything you could possibly need to know about the Angler Recognition Program on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show… The SF Restoration program supports our series…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Angler Recognition Program, 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download