Texas Hunting Leases

Task Force omission of recreational angling a glaring flaw

HOUSTON, TX – A recently issued report of the White House Interagency Ocean Task Force has caused widespread concern among America’s recreational anglers. Released just weeks after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) promised to take a “fresh look” at the federal agency’s relationship with recreational anglers, the Interim Report threatens to fast-track sweeping reforms for the management of resources in federal waters, but fails to recognize – or even mention – the conservation, economic or social contributions of recreational angling.

“Our members are very concerned about this entire process, from the timeline to the overall tone and intent of this effort. This is a huge undertaking and the ramifications could impact 60 million anglers, and yet it comes with a 30-day public review and comment period and doesn’t even mention us,” said Chester Brewer, chairman of CCA’s National Government Relations Committee. “Placing such a high priority on ocean policy is a worthy endeavor, but if this is to be a legitimate effort to establish a true policy of conservation for the wise use of our natural resources, it should not be pursued with such timelines and remarkable lack of inclusion.”

President Obama launched the effort to develop a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to manage the oceans through the White House Council on Environmental Quality, NOAA and numerous other agencies. The Administration’s directive mandated an aggressive180-day timeline to develop a national ocean policy that includes an integrated, ecosystem-based framework for marine spatial planning. Coastal Conservation Association has been active in this process and has grown concerned that concepts and goals important to the recreational sector have been overlooked – or ignored.

“We are stunned that the Task Force did not recognize the role of recreational fishing in the proper management of ocean resources. Whether this was done intentionally or not, the end result is a document that has alarmed millions of recreational anglers,” said Brewer. “We were led to believe that the value and role of recreational angling would be a priority for this Administration, as it should be for any Administration seeking to improve the management of our oceans. Establishing an overarching national oceans policy must fully consider and balance the interests of all who will be directly affected. For the Interim Report to ignore recreational fishing is an alarming sign that must be addressed.”

For a copy of CCA’s full testimony before the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, go to the Newsroom section of www.JoinCCA.org.  To submit you questions to the CCA National News Room regarding this issue please click here.

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CCA is the largest marine resource conservation group of its kind in the nation. With almost 100,000 members in 17 state chapters, CCA has been active in state, national and international fisheries management issues since 1977. Visit www.JoinCCA.org for more information

AUSTIN, Texas — Hoping to add to the mountain of 22,746 derelict crab traps hauled from Texas bays over the last six years, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials are gearing up for the 7th Texas Abandoned Crab Trap Removal Program, running this year from Feb. 15-24.

During this 10-day period, all Texas bays will be closed to crabbing with crab traps and any traps left in the bay will be presumed to be abandoned and considered litter under state law, thus allowing volunteers to legally remove any crab traps they find.

Before the 77th Legislature authorized the abandoned crab trap removal program, only the trap’s owner or a TPWD game warden could legally remove a crab trap.

State game wardens pick up more than 2,500 traps annually, yet there are many more still in the water to foul shrimpers’ nets, snag fishermen’s lines and create an unsightly view of Texas shores.

Volunteers are needed to assist in the coast-wide effort to remove the numerous wire mesh cages used to catch crabs that have been lost or abandoned since last year’s cleanup and in years past.

To facilitate volunteer trap removal efforts this year, TPWD staff will designate sites in each of the eight major bay systems for trap collection.

Areas that are relatively free of abandoned traps will have stand alone sites with dumpsters marked for trap removal.

In other areas where more effort is need, sites will be manned until noon on Saturday, Feb. 16, weather permitting and have stand-alone dumpsters for the duration of the closure. For those who choose to work on their own, TPWD requests information about the number of traps that are collected.

Volunteers can work at their own pace during the closure as time and weather permit, but cannot remove traps before Feb. 15 or after Feb. 24. Any crabs found in the traps must be set free. Last year, volunteers with the aid of numerous sponsors removed more than 2,000 traps.

“This volunteer based program has exceeded our wildest imaginations. So good in fact we are working ourselves out of a job,” said Art Morris, TPWD program coordinator. “Overall, the coast looks great in terms of the number of derelict traps people encounter. But in some areas, we could still use a little tidying up.”

According to Morris, the major problem with abandoned crab traps is that many continue to fish after they are lost — which is referred to as “ghost fishing.”

“Thirty six species of aquatic organisms have been documented in these lost traps, many commercially or recreationally important,” Morris said. “And the list even includes species of special concern, like diamondback terrapins. During the event in 2006, the remains of a river otter were removed from a lost trap in Galveston Bay.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program, Coastal Conservation Association Texas, Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, and the Cecil M. Hopper Museum are providing significant support to the crab trap removal program. Additional help is coming from numerous organizations, companies and others who are volunteering their services.

To participate, volunteers can pickup free tarps, gloves, trap hooks and additional information at each of the sites or their local TPWD Coastal Fisheries Field Stations.

To volunteer or for more information contact your local TPWD Coastal Fisheries Division office listed below or contact Art Morris TPWD Outreach Specialist at (361) 825-3356.

• Sabine Lake — Local TPWD coordinator Jerry Mambretti (409) 983-1104
• Galveston Bay — Local TPWD coordinator Bill Balboa (281) 534-0100
• Matagorda Bay — Local TPWD coordinator Josh Harper (361) 972-6253.
• San Antonio Bay — Local TPWD coordinator Norman Boyd (361) 983-4425
• Aransas Bay — Local TPWD coordinator Dennis Pridgen (361) 729-2328
• Corpus Christi Bay — Local TPWD coordinator Tom Wagner (361) 729-2328
• Upper Laguna Madre — Local TPWD coordinator Todd Neahr (361) 825-3353
• Lower Laguna Madre — Local TPWD coordinator Mark Lingo (956) 350-4490

Every year, around mid-August, I walk out into the garage and dig around for a small object that brings me hours of relaxation.  Somewhere behind the bird seed, next to the car wash stuff it sits waiting for this day to arrive.   I grab it and its two identical friends and head into the house.  Taking a measuring cup, I mix three parts water to one part sugar and begin to fill each one of them up with the irresistable atractant.  My Humingbird feeders are a very simple design with a bug moat and 6 small feeder ports drilled into a red snap-on lid.  I hang them in succession along the fence outside of the kitchen window so that every morning I have chance at having my moring coffee with them.   You can almost set your watch by their arrival each year to our back yard.  When they come, you  most certainly know that flights of early Teal are arriving in coastal rice fields as well.

The annual migration of North American birds, in general, lines up from small to large.  With the arrival of my aerobatic friends, I know that it will soon be time to go afield to see the first waterfowl to arrive on the scence -Teal ducks or “rice rockets” as hunters call them here.  This honor bestowed on them because they love the rice fields to feed and frolic in as they make their way south.  While scouting our duck leases this past weekend, we saw dozens of them in tight formation buzzing over uncut rice looking for a place to land.  Although out of their winter plumage, their flights are as beautiful and exilerationg as watching an air show with the Navy’s Blue Angels as the main event.

When I got home tonight, I looked out the window and there was our first visitor.  A beautiful male ruby-throated humming bird perched on a feeder, nourishing itself for its annual pilgrimage to the southern tropics.  Now, its time to go out in the garage and dig around for those small decoys in the bag somewhere in the back.  Their time will soon be here. 

Note: Learn more about Texas Hummingbirds here!