Page 10 - Estuaries Program News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

View Comments PALACIOS — It’s an overcast windy day as Ellis Chapman walks down a long pier facing Tres Palacios Bay. With his waders in hand, he wears a hat that says, “The Oyster Farm Company.” This is a therapeutic escape for Chapman who makes the walk nearly five days a week, Monday through Friday. The pier looks out onto the small bay, which is an extension to the much larger Matagorda Bay located in the northern Texas Coastal Bend. At the end of his walk, about 100 feet in both directions, are two growing systems used for oysters farming, or oyster aquaculture. From this vantag...

Originally from Vermont and now based in Harlingen, Bilodeau has spent nearly every week since 2017 at Boca Chica, surveying the populations of birds that depend on the mud flats, beaches, and wetlands here to feed, breed, or rest during migration. “Elon always said this was the place to launch rockets because there’s nothing here, that it’s just a big wasteland,” she says. “But that’s just not true. It’s an amazing place for shorebirds. It’s got to be one of the best places for shorebirds in the country.” Glance at a map, and it’s not immediately clear why this place is s...

1of5 On Tuesday, Texas Game Wardens posted on its Facebook page that officers rescued 141 cold-stunned sea turtles from the frigid waters of the Brownsville Ship Channel and surrounding bays.Texas Game WardensShow MoreShow Less 2of5 Wardens transported the sea turtles to rehabilitation facilities to recover and will be released back into the wild when the weather warms up.Texas Game WardensShow MoreShow Less 3of5 4of5 Due to the freezing weather, the water temperature dropped below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the cold-blooded reptiles to become lethargic and unable to swim.Texas Game Warde...

Annual Texas Abandoned Crab Trap Removal Dates Set for 2021 AUSTIN — Each February for 19 years, countless volunteers spend 10 days on the water along the Texas coastline searching the bays for abandoned crab traps left to foul shrimpers’ nets, snag anglers’ lines, “ghost fish,” and create unsightly views. To date, they’ve hauled off more than 38,000 of these derelict traps. From February 19th through the 28th, Texas coastal waters will be closed to crabbing with wire mesh crab traps to facilitate the annual volunteer crab trap cleanup. Any traps left in bays — including traps t...