San Antonio Bay Day

On Saturday, September 28 folks young and old celebrated National Estuary Day in Seadrift participating in the second annual San Antonio Bay Day activities. Very special thanks to Nan Burnett, Commissioner Finster and their group for conducting the kids fishing tournament. Whether the kids or adults had more fun is a toss up! Nearly forty fish were caught & released along with one pretty little stone crab.

Although the stiff winds detoured the kayakers from paddling across San Antonio Bay, they had a delightful adventure launching from Seadrift Marina and exploring the shoreline south toward Seadrift island.

Meanwhile the birding group spotted a plethora of our local avifauna. Thirty eight species of shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, passerines and icterids were enjoyed on a private ranch in the Welder Flats area.

After the events everyone enjoyed the great hot dog lunch with all the fix’ns. A very special thank you to Lynn Reeves and the Seadrift Lions Club for their kindness and culinary efforts as well as to HEB in Port Lavaca for sponsoring the lunch and beverages.

San Antonio Bay Day came to a dramatic close with the announcement of the silent auction and raffle winners. Congratulations to Patrick Rios of Rockport for winning the Matagorda Island Marsh Kayak Trip & Dinner of the Beach. Special thanks to the sponsors of SA Bay Day: San Antonio River Authority, First Victoria National Bank, Dow Chemical, Mid-Coast Chapter Texas Master Naturalists, and the Victoria Advocate.

San Antonio Bay Day is hosted by San Antonio Bay Partnership as a community outreach and fund raising event. SABP is a regional, non-profit, stakeholder-driven planning and management program whose purpose is to create and sustain a working partnership of committed stakeholders in order to protect, restore and enhance the natural resources of the San Antonio Bay/Guadalupe Estuary System for the benefit of the environment and its human uses. Our efforts to date have produced an inventory of conservation needs and an inventory of public access and human use needs is in progress. We are working with like minded groups to advance the implementation of projects that have been identified.

For more information www.SABayPartnership.org