Just in time for the annual white bass run, Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine is launching its first-ever online-only extra, “Texas Fishing 2012.”

The 40-page digital publication, available at http://www.tpwmagazine.com/fishing2012 features a 2012 fishing forecast by TPWD staffer and long-time outdoor writer Steve Lightfoot as well as a figurative tackle box full of topical articles aimed at making your next fishing trip enjoyable and productive.

“Our focus with this digital publication, which will be produced annually, is to provide practical how-to and where-to information for Texas and out-of-state anglers,” says magazine editor Louie Bond. “In addition to our traditional high quality photos and articles, this online guide will feature videos and links to various online resources of interest to folks who love to fish.”

The publication went live Feb. 1. Unlike the traditional paper edition of Texas Parks & Wildlife, which is available only to paid subscribers, “Texas Fishing 2012” is free.

Among the articles featured in the new digital publication are “Fish Condos: If you build it, they will come,” by Dyanne Fry Cortez of TPWD’s Inland Fisheries Division; “Lunker Mania: Could This Be the Year You Catch a Whopper of a Largemouth?” by Inland Fisheries’s Larry D. Hodge and magazine editor Bond and “Enlist in the War on Aliens,” also by Hodge.

In September, Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine will be posting its first-ever digital Hunting Guide.

Texas200 Sail Club is proud to announce the running of the 5th annual Texas200. The five-day, four-night sail event will begin on June 11th and finish the 15th in Seadrift Texas.

Sailors will launch from Port Isabel, Texas and sail approximately 200 miles up the South central Texas Coast. Seadrift was chosen once again because of the warm welcome locals showed for the sailors and sailorettes who completed the event in 2011.

The event tests endurance and one’s mental ability. Participants will face some of the best and worst weather Texas has to offer. Temperatures can reach the 100’s and wind’s up to gale force.

In celebration of this event, there will be a shrimp boil sponsored by Bubba’s Cajun Seafood of Seadrift, Texas and Shiner beer!

Updates may be found online at http://www.texas200.com, in addition if you are interested in being a participant or attending the shrimp boil you may purchase tickets online. The sail club would like to thank everyone that has helped in the past, and those that have or are helping contribute to this year. With your help we will make the Texas200 one of the great events of the year!

We all look forward to visiting Seadrift once again.

The Texas 200 Sail Club

Where: George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida De Las Americas (Located in downtown Houston) Exhibit Hall A, Houston Texas, 77010, 713-853-8000
When: Starts Wednesday, February 29th and lasts 5 days through Sunday, March 4th

Hours: Wednesday through Friday 12:00 noon to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Admission: Adults – $9.00
Children (6-12) – $2.00

The Port O’Connor Chamber of Commerce will have a booth at the Houston Fishing Show. Chamber members can provide their literature/business cards to be distributed at the show.

Both members and non-members can sponsor the show and be represented with banners at the show booth. For information, please contact either:

Becky at BB Upholstery
361-571-6131

Patti at 361-649-2265

Mary Jo at Beacon 44 Seafood
361-920-4247

Donnie at Port O’Connor Rods
361-746-8049

Paul at Tigrett Real Estate
361-571-5263

Jim Hooper at Hurricane
Junction, 361-983-4249

Lavaca Bay areas 1-3 are open to commercial oyster harvest as of 12:01 a.m. February 2. These conditionally approved areas and Espiritu Santo Bay are the only bays currently open to shellfish harvesting at this time. The Texas Department of State Health Services will continue to monitor the red tide and will open other areas for harvesting when it is safe to do so. For the latest information on the opening and closing of oyster harvest areas, call DSHS at 1-800-685-0361.

Portions of Galveston Bay to Open Following Red Tide
DSHS will open Conditionally Approved Area 1 as well as the North, Central, Smith Point and East Approved Areas of Galveston Bay beginning Thursday, February 9. Espiritu Santo and Conditionally Approved Areas 1, 2 and 3 of Lavaca Bay remain open to shellfish harvesting as well.

Dinophysis Detected at Two Locations Along Texas Coast
TPWD has confirmed a Dinophysis bloom at Surfside Marina in Freeport following a report of discolored water. In addition, TAMU’s Imaging Flow CytoBot has detected rising concentrations of Dinophysis at the UTMSI pier in Port Aransas. Levels at Port Aransas are currently too low to discolor the water. Dinophysis does not cause aerosol effects or widespread fish kill like Karenia brevis (red tide), but the okadaic acid toxin is taken up by oysters, rendering them inedible.

Meridith Byrd
Texas Parks and Wildlife

Red tides are caused by an overgrowth of a microscopic algal species called Karenia brevis. K. brevis is a naturally-occurring alga in the Gulf of Mexico that can discolor the water and kill fish and other marine life.

Filter-feeding shellfish such as oysters, whelks, clams and mussels concentrate K. brevis in their tissues, which can result in Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning should a person eat the affected oyster. NSP is not a fatal shellfish poisoning and people generally recover in 2-3 days.

Crustaceans (shrimp and crabs) do not accumulate brevetoxin like filter-feeders do and are safe to eat during red tides.

Fish that look and act healthy (no lesions, fight the hook energetically) are generally considered safe to eat. Brevetoxin accumulates in the organs of fish and not in the muscle tissue.

Coastal Fisheries staff monitor the event by collecting water and assessing fish kills to determine areal extent and numbers and species of fish and wildlife impacted affected.

The first know red tide in Texas was in 1935. Red tides have probably occurred before, but no one knew what they were. The Spaniard’s noted discolored water and dead fish in 1530, but scientists did not know red tides were caused by dinoflagellates until 1947.

In 1935, the first known red tide occurred in Texas off Mustang and Padre Islands. The associated fish kill was estimated over 4 million kg (8.8 million lbs) of fish.

Over the next 50 years, Texas experienced approximately one red tide every decade, with one exception in the 1970s (1935, 1948, 1955, 1972, 1976, 1986.) Since the 1986 bloom in Texas, red tides have occurred at greater frequencies with four events in 1990’s and six events in 2000.

The intensity and extent of the red tide associated fish kills have been variable. Texas’ most severe red tides events occurred in 1986 and 1997. Estimates were over 20 million fish killed in each year, with less than one per cent being recreational and/or commercial species. Other events had lower impacts with 2000 and 2009 red tide events reporting 2-3 million fish/event killed.

The majority of past red tide events in Texas, began offshore from late August/early September and lasted into November. Associated bay (inshore) impacts sometimes followed the onset of offshore blooms occurring into January of the next year.

Rhonda Cummins
Coastal & Marine Resource Advisor