Passport to Texas

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

Mark your calendars for August first. If all goes well – that’s the day the Texas Clipper officially joins the Ships-to-Reefs program.

The idea behind this project is to place a ship about seventeen miles off of South Padre Island for the purpose of enhancing marine life, but also as a premier dive attraction out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dale Shively coordinates the artificial reef program for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

We are designing it for diving. So, we’re making it very diver friendly. We’re opening up the insides of it, where the divers can go tour the inside decks, especially on the super structure. And, we’ve left as much of the ship intact as possible.

Once marine life starts calling the Clipper home, divers will have more to enjoy.

Organisms will start to settle on it; fish will be attracted to it just because it’s a structure. And then as the food chain develops and the microorganisms that grow on the structure itself increase, then you will see more and more fish.

And more fish means increased angling opportunities.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…working to increase fishing and boating opportunities in Texas…

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

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

The Texas Clipper served as a WWII troop transport ship, a luxury cruise liner, and a maritime training vessel for Texas A&M University. This summer, the Clipper begins a new life as an artificial reef.

An artificial reef is a reef site that’s created from man made materials for the enhancement of marine life.

Dale Shively coordinates the artificial reef program for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Preparing the Clipper for the Ships-to-Reefs program has taken years of hard work.

It’s been at least ten years just to get through all the administrative paperwork and get to the point where the ship could be transferred to us.

The ship will eventually rest on the gulf floor, seventeen miles off the coast of South Padre Island. Since November 2006, the ship’s been in Brownsville for remediation.

As we got into the ship and the cleanup began, we found a couple of items that were unknown. Such as extra PCB type materials that were on the bulkheads behind wallboards and things. So, that has caused a delay in the cleanup process.

Nevertheless, the date for sinking the Clipper is near.

If I had to bet money, I would put my money around the first of August.

That’s our show… with support from the Sport Fish Restoration Program…working to increase fishing and boating opportunities in Texas…

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

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The year 2006 marked a major milestone in the recovery of the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. Mexican and U.S. scientists staged the largest single-day turtle release since the bi-national recovery project began three decades ago, helping two hundred forty thousand (240,000) turtle hatchlings wriggle across the sand and into the Gulf of Mexico. Even though sea turtle nestings on Texas and Mexico beaches soared to record highs in 2006, biologists are tempering jubilation with caution, saying current levels of funding and work must continue for the world’s most endangered sea turtle to fully recover. Tom Harvey has this report.

Read about Ridley Recovery

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