Cody Rainosek asked to celebrate his 11th birthday fishing in Port O’ Connor. Little did he know he would be braving 40 degree temps and driving rain, but he and friends Trevor Hajek and Chad Neubauer, along with his mom Teresa Rainosek, headed to Port O’ Connor from Shiner and did just that. They bundled up and set out across the bay with Capt. Mike Clifton and family to Saluria in search of big black drum. The boys were tough and fished hard but the drum were elusive. They still enjoyed their day and used every last bait fishing off the dock. Cody then enjoyed a birthday lunch at Cathy’s. Happy 11th Birthday Cody! Hope you enjoyed your day in POC.

-Beverly Clifton

Thank You

The family of Roland Sample Cain expresses our sincerest gratitude and appreciation for the loving care of our Father.

A special thanks to Dr. Suruchii Kathpalia and staff, DeTar Hospital all of Victoria, Trinity Shores of Port Lavaca, Melinda of Accolade Hospice and staff of Victoria.

We give our sincere praise and thanks for our care givers, Anabele Carrilles, Mary Ann Carrilles, and Marcy Reyes all of Pt Lavaca who always go the extra mile.

We also wish to thank Canon Father Bob DeWolfe of Tyler, Father Robert Johnston, Reverend Dwayne Wise, Reverend Mike Gresham, Reverend Dean Holford, VFW Post 4403, American Legion all of Port Lavaca, and Charles Orr of Corpus for the very lovely services.

Thanks also to all of our friends and family who sent prayers, food, flowers, and donations.

God Bless You,

Russell, Sharon, Barbara, Alan, & Families

Golf Cart Signs

I would like to know why the golf cart association has put up signs all over Port O’Connor, TX about the golf cart rules. It is Calhoun County and the State of Texas that approved these rules, not an association. Where do the monies go for this association? Anyone can form an association.

S.H.

To all the Duck Hunters:

I know Port O Connor is a desirable place to hunt. But I would like some courtesy involved in the disposal of the carcasses. I don’t like going to the boat stalls and smelling your “breasted” dead ducks. I really didn’t enjoy arriving at my property & finding DEAD DUCKS in my trash container. I don’t know how long they were there, but they were ROTTED & GROSS. My father and Grandfather hunted ducks and would be appalled at the current Duck Hunters. Remember the rest of us enjoy this wonderful place, please respect others and their property.

Cindy Spears

Dear Dolphin,

The cold rainy weather we had last weekend didn’t seem to keep a few of our out of town visitors from coming down. In fact, around 11:30 p.m. on Friday evening, a conversation was overheard between two women from out of town. FIRST WOMAN: “What woman in her right mind would want to live in Port O’Connor?” SECOND WOMAN: “Yes, there isn’t even a shopping mall, a Wal-Mart, or an upscale beauty salon. Why, they don’t even have a McDonalds!”

Well… Ladies let me explain to ya’ll with all the modern technology, state of the art communication and computers, a woman can be a buyer for one of the largest fashion houses in the world and still live in Port O’Connor. She can be a prestigious pharmaceutical representative and never leave her POC home. Port O’Connor women can work in just about every honorable profession and still live in POC.

We can enjoy an early morning walk at 5:00 a.m. and not worry about being abducted, beaten or raped. We can take our children to the beach and not worry about some pervert molesting them. We know our neighbors and can rest assured if we need them, they will be right there to help us.

Our small elementary school doesn’t have to worry about a mad bomber or a student with a gun killing other students. Our principal and teachers have masters degrees and years of dedicated experience. They know each and every student and can call them by name when they meet. Guess what? ALL the well trained and well educated staff of teachers in Port O’Connor, Texas are WOMEN ! These ladies came from all over the USA, to make POC their home.

We have female doctors, lawyers, RNs, with masters degrees. We have lab technicians, respiratory therapist, physical therapist, Radiologist, real estate brokers, a world renowned ornithologist, and a female Justice Court Judge to only name a few of the prestigious career women who have CHOSEN to make POC their home. Our female Judge, has been serving her community for 22 years and has traveled the entire state, teaching Texas court clerks, many of which said they wish they could live in this wonderful little laid back community.

We have women who have had businesses in POC for generations. Female engineers from POC who travel all over the nation, teaching and networking with other engineers. We have stay at home moms who have chosen to make POC their home.

If we feel the need to shop at a mall, we can be in Victoria in less time than you can drive across Austin, Dallas, Houston or even Corpus Christi. No we don’t have an upscale beauty salon, but our small hair and nail salons can make us look like fashion models, if we want. But we realize REAL BEAUTY & HAPPINESS come from within.

No, we don’t have a McDonalds, but we have a Speedy Stop, where you can get a Real Texas burger, taco, or a quick lunch. At Speedy Stop, you are treated like a person and not just a number. Josie’s is our local FEMALE run Mexican Restaurant & Cantina. There, you can get the best Mexican food in South Texas. Another local eating spot is Cathy’s’. Yep, you guessed it, owner FEMALE. Cathy’s has the freshest seafood, the best service and small town flavor you can’t get anywhere along the Texas coast. All these establishments make a person feel WELCOME.

The women of POC could live anywhere in the WORLD, but we have chosen to live right here. So…… ladies the question you asked was “ What woman in her right mind would want to live in POC?” I think what you should really be asking “What woman in her right mind would not want to live in POC?”

Oh, and by the way, if you are reading this in our local Dolphin Talk news , this little informative and fun paper was created by WOMEN and the editor is a very hard working, dedicated, WOMAN who chose to live in POC!

Proud to be a Port O’Connor Woman…

Emma Raby- Resident

The Dolphin welcomes letters from our readers on any subject that is of general interest to our audience. Letters should be 300 words or less (with exceptions at the Dolphin’s discretion). Letters reflect the opinion of the writer, and not that of Dolphin Talk staff, and we retain the right to determine suitability for publication. It is the policy of this newspaper to promote area interests: therefore, complaints against local businesses should be directed elsewhere. Letters must be signed and include day and evening phone numbers, which will not be published. Your name will be withheld upon request, but anonymous material will not be considered for publication.


Letters to the Dolphin:

Dolphin Talk, P.O. Box 777
Port O’Connor, TX 77982
dolphin1@tisd.net

For most children being hospitalized is a frightening situation. The staff at Memorial Medical Center in Port Lavaca tries to bring a smile to these children’s faces by letting them “go shopping” at Gina’s Closet, a closet filled with toys. Sometimes this is the child’s only distraction from the round of medication and procedures that is hospital life.

A Toy Drive is being held February 27 through March 19 to refill the depleted closet. New, unwrapped toys for children of all ages are needed. If you would like to help please call 361-552-0369 or simply drop off your donation at the second floor nurses station.

If anyone in Port O’Connor would like to make a donation, Donn (D.V.) Stringo, RN, BSN would be glad to pick up and deliver to Gina’s Closet.

Report for November 2011 through January 2012

Developed by Rhonda Cummins, Coastal & Marine Resource Advisor – Calhoun County

Relevance:

Since 1991, Texas has consistently produced the second-largest Eastern oyster crop in the United States. Texas is also considered a primary, nationwide supplier of both live oysters, products such as shucked meats available both fresh and frozen, and a variety of individually-quick-frozen (IQF) convenience products. In 2007 Texas oystermen harvested 5.6 million pounds of oyster meat that netted $19.2 million. Numbers were down in 2009 due to Hurricane Ike and the economy, but Texas still harvested 2.7 million pounds of oyster meat for which the fishermen were paid $9.4 million.

Numbers for the 2011-2012 season are expected to be drastically down because of the statewide closure of all harvesting areas. The Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) depicts 33 oyster harvesting areas along the Texas Coast. The public season is normally November 1 through April 30 and during this time, bay areas may be closed by the TDSHS for concerns about public safety. Closures vary in length and in magnitude. Water testing is strictly guided and performed to monitor various harmful algal blooms, such as Karenia Brevis, a.k.a. red tide, which prompted the initial closures this season.

Response:

Extreme drought in Texas helped created high salinity conditions in the bay systems by contributing to insufficient freshwater inflows, and the lack of local rainfall, resulting in prime conditions for the massive red tide which began in late September 2011. With the oyster season unable to open for week after week, the oystermen sought assistance from elected officials and several counties wrote disaster declarations for the fishery, forwarding their proclamations to Governor Perry’s office. To assist with the body of knowledge needed to assess the economic impact to the fishermen, Texas Sea Grant Extension in Calhoun County has been working with information provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and local oystermen to calculate the potential economic loss at the first level of impact –sacks of oysters, and their value, landed on the local docks. This work is part of Sea Grant’s ongoing outreach and research efforts for the Texas seafood industry.

Results:

The first bay in Texas to open for harvest was San Antonio Bay’s conditionally approved area on January 27th. This area was closed four days later due to bacterial concerns related to rainfall coming down the Guadalupe River and as such is not statistically significant for the monthly total. Likewise, Espiritu Santo Bay also opened on January 27th. Due to the past number of sacks harvested from this bay over the last five years, the January landings made would be insignificant. The following figures are calculated from commercial landings data collected by TPWD over the last 5 seasons for public reefs and based on sacks sold by fishermen to processors and the value in dollars of those sacks. These data were broken down into bays by location of landings and the reasonable expected area to be fished by a captain based in that area. Oyster boats based in Calhoun County could fish any and/or all of the following bays during a week, month, or season: Espiritu Santo, Lavaca, Matagorda, and San Antonio. As such the totals of the sacks harvested and dollar value were combined by month for this assessment. Looking at the chart below, the average number of sacks landed in these four bays in the month of November was 44,693.4. The average value paid for each sack in November across the four bay area was $18.73 for a total of $837,161.40.

For the license year 2012, 110 oyster boat licenses were sold to Calhoun County residents. Since all the bays were closed, no trip tickets were filed for landings, so it is not possible to accurately determine how many boats would have been fishing if the bays were open. Thus, it is logical to use the last license year to determine possible active vessels. In the 2011 license year, 111 oyster boat licenses are sold to Calhoun County residents and 80 actually reported landings during the 2010-2011 oyster season. Therefore over the last three months, considering only active oyster boats licensed in Calhoun County, during an average year, each boat could have possibly harvested 1,518 sacks of oysters with an estimated value of $28,385.56. With the current 50 sack/day limit, the local oyster boats are working with one captain and two deckhands. The split of the day’s sale is 30% for the boat, 30% for the captain, and 20% for each deckhand, after expenses (includes oyster tags, diesel, etc.). Not considering expenses, the average losses for the first 3-month half of the 2011-2012 oyster season are $8,515.67 per vessel, $8,515.67 per captain, and $5,677.11 per deckhand.

For more information on this study, or others like it: 361-552-9747; rdcummins@ag.tamu.edu