Fish Kill Reports Coming in From All Over the South Texas Coast
Cue the Frank Zappa, there are lots of fish heads floating around the Texas Coast thanks to all the winter weather last week.
The Coastal Fisheries Division of Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) has been pretty busy dealing with all the calls about the frozen waters causing mass fish kills.
It's been worst for spotted sea trout who are usually the first to freeze according to a press release from Texas Parks and Wildlife. Their report says thanks to local fisherman and boaters, reports have been helpful in pinpointing which type of fish are freezing and which locations they are being found in.
One of the locations seeing the most frozen fish kills are over in the bay systems near Galveston Bay. Most of the casualties happened near the barrier islands such as the Pringle Lakes of Matagorda Island. It really is fascinating how many fish are so close to shore, and how many different kinds are so close to Matagorda Island and even the shipping channel.
Another area seeing heavy counts of dead fish due to the freezing waters of last week includes Port O'Connor public beach and pier. There are also several species observed in Lavaca Bay. Heavy kills have also been observed along the southern shoreline of San Antonio Bay with large portions of game fish spotted floating in the water.
Just looking at these early reports from Texas Parks and Wildlife show it wasn't just humans struggling with the winter storms and sub-freezing temperatures, it hit our coastal fish populations pretty hard. It will take until later in the spring to really see the large-scale impact of the winter storm.
If you are headed out fishing during the final days of February and encounter more frozen fish you can head over to https://tpwd.texas.gov/ to send in information about what you saw. Or, Call (512) 389-4848.
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