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One menhaden among the thousands killed by the 2011 red tide in South Texas was washedup on the bank by ship wakes in the Brownsville Ship Channel. Menhaden, which are f ilter

feeders, are among the f irst species to die from the naturally occurring neurotoxins in the redtide algae Karenia brevis. High salinities in the states bays from the 2011 drought provideda hospitable environment forK. brevis to spread. Photo by Tony Reisinger

ON THE COVER: The combination of an extremely high tide and the wake from passingships washed thousands of f ish killed by the red tide, mainly striped mullet, onto the bank ofthe Brownsville Ship Channel near the Carl Joe Gayman Channel, which provides inflowto the Bahia Grande. Photo by Tony Reisinger

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2

seanotesLionfsh and tiger shrimp] Texas Sea Grant survey] $100Kgrant or community planning] Jacob honored with Hershey

Award] Floating Classroom on the move] Texas Knauss

Fellows in D.C.] National Ocean Sciences Bowl] New

quarters or Texas Sea Grant

11

featurestoryWater, water everywhere...Between the eects o the devastating drought and a massive

red tide, 2011 was a year to remember on the Texas coast

though some might wish they could orget it.

31coastaliconThe late Roberta Ripke let big shoes to fll in the coastal

community she loved so dearly.

TEXAS SHORES is published twice a year by the Texas Sea Grant College Program to promoteawareness and understanding of the Texas marine environment. Texas Sea Grant is made possible

through an institutional award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,

U.S. Department of Commerce, as well as appropriations from the Texas Legislature and local

governments.

Change of Address, Subscription Information or Other Questions: Texas Shores, Texas Sea Grant

College Program, Texas A&M University, MS 4115, College Station, Texas 77843, call (979)

862-3774, or email [email protected]. Please include old label when changing

mailing address.

TEXAS SHORES (ISSN 0747-0959) is published by the Texas Sea Grant College Program,

Texas A&M University, MS 4115, College Station, Texas 77843. Subscriptions are free to

U.S. residents. International addresses will be charged postal fees. Periodical postage is paid at

College Station, Texas.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Texas Sea Grant, Texas A&M University, MS 4115, College

Station, Texas 77843.

2012 Texas Sea Grant College Program.

Spring/Summer 2012 Texas Sea Grant College Program Vol. 40 No

Editor

Cindie Powell

Graphic Designer

Tanya Baker

Contributing Writer/

Photo Editor

Jim Hiney

Texas Sea Grant

Director

Dr. Pamela Plotkin

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More lions, fewer tigersreported in Texas

Sightings in the past year o lionsh at the Flower

Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary have morethan doubled and the sh are getting bigger whileewer black tiger shrimp are making it back to exas portsdespite the skyrocketing number being reported in otherareas o the Gul o Mexico.

Lionsh and black tiger shrimp are only two o morethan 40 species o non-indigenous sea lie known to bespreading through the Gul o Mexico rom their native

waters, but they are seen by many resource experts as themost threatening. Both species are native to the Indian and

western Pacic Oceans and are noted or their aggressive

eeding behaviors and hardiness they can live in a wide

range o water temperatures and salinities. Tese traitsmake them perect, and dangerous, invaders.

Te rst lionsh reported at the Flower Garden Bankswas seen last summer. Since then, both sanctuary sta andrecreational divers have reported seeing 49 in and aroundthe sanctuary, located about 100 miles o the exas-Louisiana border.

Lionsh are strikingly colored, brightly stripedvenomous sh that can quickly populate an area anddecrease native populations through either eating them orchasing them away. Tey were most likely introduced tothe Gul o Mexico through the aquarium trade either

as an accidental or intentional release rom an aquarium.

According to Michelle Johnston, research ecologist orthe Flower Garden Banks, divers reported 20 lionsh last

year, with an average size o 10 to 12 centimeters. Tisyear, there have been 29 sightings, and the average sizeo the sh has been 18 to 23 centimeters. O the 49 totallionsh spotted, 28 were within the sanctuary boundaries,and Johnston says 17 o those 28 sh were captured andremoved rom the sanctuary.

Te Asian black tiger shrimp also has established aoothold in the Gul. Ocials at the U.S. GeologicalSurvey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have seen a nearlyten-old rise in the number o these shrimp reportedlycaught in the Gul o Mexico. Tey do not yet know i theincreased reports refect a growing population or representa growing awareness o the invasive species by shrimpshermen.

USGS and NOAA researchers are working with stateagencies rom North Carolina to exas to determinehow this species reached the United States and what theincrease in sightings may mean or native species. Telargest species o shrimp in the world, black tiger shrimp

are grown in aquaculture acilities in several places aroundthe world, although not in the United States, and onepopular theory holds that some o the shrimp escaped intothe sea rom an aquaculture pond in the Caribbean that

was breached by a hurricane in 2005. Others speculatethat the shrimp hitched a ride rom Asian to U.S. watersin the ballast tanks o ships.

Only ve o the shrimp, which can grow to more thana oot long and approach one pound in weight, have beendocumented in exas waters thus ar, and all were caught

Lionfish.

Black tiger shrimp caught south of Morgan City, La., by theF/V Jake M.

Photocourtesyu.s.GeoloGicals

urvey

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last year. Most o the captures have occurred o theLouisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts.

exas shrimpers caught several black tiger shrimp whileshing o o Louisiana and, at the request o exas Sea

Grant and exas Parks and Wildlie (PWD) personnel,brought the specimens back to shore or genetic testingby USGS in hopes o determining their origin. CameronCounty Coastal and Marine Resources Agent onyReisinger, who oten collected the specimens when theboats returned to port, says he is now seeing ewer tigershrimp making it back to exas or several reasons. Highuel prices kept many boats rom traveling to Louisianauntil the exas shrimp shery closure began on May 15.exas crews also ound out that tiger shrimp are goodeating, and there is no reward or turning the shrimp over

to the government, Reisinger says.

He is currently working with exas shrimping industryocials to develop an incentive program to increase thenumber o tiger shrimp given to state ocials or testing.Despite the rise in captures in other parts o the Gul oMexico, experts believe the number o tiger shrimp ound

is still greatly under-reported.Black tiger shrimp eat the same types o ood as nativeshrimp species, but as they grow they also eat their smallercousins. Tey also are susceptible to about 16 diseases not all o them atal that can be transmitted tonative shrimp and crabs, says Leslie Hartman, PWDsMatagorda Bay Ecosystem Leader.

Te potential impact is roughly similar to theEuropeans bringing smallpox to the new world, she says.Tey can put a hurt on the domestic shrimping andcrabbing industries.

Our native shrimp are active scavengers. igershrimp are active predators that are twice the size o theircompatriots, so between the diseases they carry and beingan active predator, the black tiger shrimp can be a big

issue.On the other hand, black tiger shrimp, which are also

susceptible to diseases carried by native shrimp, are ahighly valuable commodity. Te shrimp etch a marketprice similar to native white and brown shrimp.

Jim Hiney

Penny for your thoughts?How about $100?

Te exas Sea Grant College Program is asking exansto help it chart its course in the areas o coastal andmarine research, outreach and education by participatingin an online survey. As a thank you, ve people whocomplete the survey will be chosen at random to win $100git cards.

Te program that bills itsel as Science at Work orexans is currently developing its strategic plan or2014-2017. exas Sea Grants mission is to improve theunderstanding, wise use and stewardship o exas coastaland marine resources. o achieve this mission, exas

Sea Grant develops and supports research, educationand outreach programsand partnerships, andrelies on the public orknowledge, advice andguidance.

Te survey takesjust a ew minutesto complete andgauges participantsinterest in issues

concerning coastalcommunity growthand development,

jobs and theeconomy, coastal and marineeducation, and coastal health, saety and beauty.Individuals interested in voicing their opinions can nd alink to the survey on exas Sea Grants homepage, http://

exasSeaGrant.org. All responses are anonymous. Jim Hiney

iger shrimp shown for comparison with a native brown shrimp.PhotobytonyreisinGer

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Communityplanning effortgets $100K grant

Community leaders, elected ocialsand citizens in the Rockport area

will work side-by-side using ordinarytables and light pens in new waysto crunch complex data and makear-reaching decisions about the areasgrowth over the next quarter-century,thanks to a $100,000 ederal grant.

Te National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) awarded the grant to Dr. John Jacob, exas SeaGrants Coastal Communities Development Specialist, to

use the Community Health and Resources Management(CHARM) model in conjunction with the innovativeweable during an 18-month series o developmentplanning workshops beginning this summer.

Te CHARM model uses a variety o data demographics, average water consumption per dwellingtype, and topographic and bathymetric measurements to calculate the end result o development based onparameters ed to it by workshop participants. Teseparameters can include locations or growth, anticipatednumbers o new residents and predicted hurricane storm

surges.Te weable combines a laptop computer, a projector,

a light pen and a Nintendo Wii remote to transorm anordinary tabletop into an interactive computer interace.

Participants use the light pen like a computer mouse onthe projected image o the computers desktop, which isshown on the tabletop. Te Wii remote detects the pensposition on the table and sends the location to the laptop

via Bluetooth connection so people can turn complex datainto a color palette that allows them to paint dierent

versions o uture development, and the resulting picturereveals the consequences o their decisions in terms opotential runo pollution, fooding and food damage,

water consumption and even walkability.

rd m: p://txsG.g/nwade/

Mdr/p12/wt-JJ.m.

Jim Hiney

he weable transforms a tabletop into aninteractive computer interface.

Dr. John Jacob receiving the Hershey award from Dr.Ssott Shafer of the AMU Department of Recreation,Park and ourism Sciences.

Dr. John Jacobs impressive body o work integrating conservation andsustainable community development has earned him the prestigious erryHershey Award or Excellence rom the Department o Recreation, Parkand ourism Sciences (RPS) at exas A&M University.

Named in honor o Houstons grande dame o conservation, the HersheyAward recognizes excellence in park, recreation or natural resourcescontributions to exas, the region and/or the nation, as well as support oreducation and innovations as a leader in natural resource protection.

Jacob, Proessor and Coastal Community Development Specialistwith exas Sea Grant, was chosen or his work and achievements thathave helped to make people aware o bayou conservation, communitydevelopment patterns and the value o open spaces, says Dr. Scott Shaer,RPS Associate Department Head. Tese are the kinds o issues erryHershey believes in and supports.

rd m: p://txsG.g/nwade/Mdr/p12/

hawd-J.m Jm h

Jacob receives Hershey Award for Excellence

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exas Sea Grants Floating Classroom, the Karma,will continue its wandering ways this all when it returnsto Matagorda County to help students there learn aboutlocal aquatic ecosystems. Te boat will also revisit PortManseld, most likely in February 2013, and may alsomake a port call in Rockport.

For the past ew years, the Karma has traveled romits homeport in Corpus Christi to Matagorda County the boats ormer homeport to take the countys thgrade students on cruises aimed at enhancing their marinescience knowledge. Tese cruises were made possibleby a grant rom the ederal government, and sucientunds remain to provide or two more visits, includingthe one this all, says Dr. Russ Miget, Floating ClassroomProgram Coordinator.

Te Karma visited Port Manseld and South PadreIsland in February 2012 to provide ourth through eighthgrade students rom the Lasara, San Perlita and Lyordschool districts, as well as icthyology students rom TeUniversity o exas at Brownsville (UB), with a uniqueopportunity to learn about the Laguna Madre rst hand.In addition to cruising on the Karma, the Willacy Countystudents spent two hours on land at the UB Departmento Biological Sciences eld station in Port Manseld,

where Dr. Richard Kline, Assistant Proessor o Biological

Sciences, and his graduate students taught lessons onseveral topics, including sheries, coral biology and beachrestoration. Kline also led students into nearby marineecosystems, where they threw cast nets and examined theanimals they caught.

A month later, the Floating Classroom traveled to PortLavaca or 10 days o cruises or Calhoun County middleschool students.

During the Karmas hands-on educational cruises,students participate in a number o activities, includinghelping to deploy and retrieve a small trawl net. Sea liecaught in the net is transerred to touch tanks on theback deck o the 57-oot ormer bay shrimp boat, where

students are allowed to handle the catch while naturalistsdescribe the animals biology and role in the ecosystem.Students also collect and view plankton samples, test waterclarity and learn about aquatic ood webs.

Te Karma oers public cruises in addition to thosebooked by school groups, and several passengers romRockport were impressed with what they saw. Weve hadmany requests rom people rom Rockport who have takenthe public cruise, asking that we visit their community, so

we are seriously considering taking the boat to Rockportor a week, probably this all, Miget says.

Te Floating Classroom Program is operated by theexas Sea Grant Program in partnership with exasAgriLie Extension. Te Karma is a U.S. Coast Guard-inspected passenger-or-hire vessel, which means itmeets the strictest saety requirements. It is operated by alicensed captain and experienced crew trained to respondto all emergencies.

More inormation on the Floating Classroom Programis available at http://foatingclassroom.tamu.edu.

Jim Hiney

Dr. Russ Miget, Floating Classroom Program Coordinator, supervisesWillacy County students as they handle sea life brought aboard the R/VKarma in a trawl net.

UB graduate student Andres Garcia prepares to throw a cast net as WillacyCounty students watch. he activity was part of shoreside lessons done inconjunction with theKarma.

Floating Classroom to visit Matagorda, Willacy counties

PhotobyWhitneycurry

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exas Sea Grants our Knauss Fellows have beenmaking the most o their year-long assignments to ederalagencies in Washington, D.C. Halway through theirellowships, Kathleen Welder, April Bagwill, AlysonAzzara and Liam Carr report they are tackling a numbero important issues that shape the way their agenciesoperate and aect management o the nations aquaticresources.

Te Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships,established in 1979, provide a unique educationalexperience to students who have an interest in ocean,coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the nationalpolicy decisions aecting these resources. Te program isnamed in honor o one o Sea Grant s ounders, ormer

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) Administrator John A. Knauss.Welder received her masters

degree in Environmental Sciencerom exas A&M University-Corpus Christi in August 2011 andis spending her ellowship workingor the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)Oce o Navigation Systems, whichis charged with ensuring navigationsaety in U.S. waterways. Within

the Oce o Navigation Systems,Welder is part o the Navigation Standards Division.She is currently a member o the divisions Oshore

Renewable Energy eam and is helping rene aNavigation and Vessel Inspection Circular (NVIC) thatprovides internal and external guidance to the USCG,other agencies and uture developers about actors theUSCG will consider when reviewing applications tobuild and operate oshore renewable energy installations(OREI), like wind arms, in U.S. navigable waters. TeUSCG has no regulatory authority over OREIs, butsince these developments will most likely alter historicnavigation routes, the USCG will review developmentapplications and provide comments to lead permittingagencies.

In March, Welder attended a Ports and WaterwaysSaety Assessment (PAWSA) two-day work session in

Chicago, where the USCG brought together dierentwaterway user groups to assess the saety and user impactso Mayor Rahm Emanuels proposal to build our newkayak boat houses on the Chicago River.

Welder is also participating in the recently assembledeNavigation subcommittee o the ederal interagencyCommittee on the Marine ransportation System(CMS). She is currently working with representativesrom NOAA and the U.S. Army Corps o Engineers todevelop and monitor the progress o the eNavigationeort, which is aimed at streamlining the exchange o

electronic inormation fowing rom ship-to-ship andship-to-shore.Azzara, who received her doctorate in Marine Biology

through theInterdisciplinaryDegree Programat exas A&MUniversity atGalveston inMay, is workingor the CMS

and chairs itsEnvironmentalStewardship Discussion Group.

Te group recently met to discussregulation and mitigation optionsor vessel emissions o black carbon,a substance ormed through theincomplete combustion o ossil uels,biouels or biomass. Black carbon iscited as a contributing actor to climatechange.

exas Knauss Fellows Liam Carr (background), Kathleen Welder and April Bagwill watch asXSG Fisheries specialist Gary Graham explains the workings of a shrimp trawl net.

Kathleen Welder

Alyson Azzara

Texas Knauss Fellows thriving in Washington, D.C.

PhotobyJiMhiney

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One o Azzaras rstassignments was to update theCMS Maritime Data Portal,

which is a database o ederalpublications and inormation

including reports, statistics andpublic documents. Te databasenow links 200 websitescontaining inormation.

She is also working withtwo o CMSs IntegratedAction eams on policyrecommendations or theArctic Marine ransportationSystem as well as an assessmento inrastructure investment

criteria or the nations Marineransportation System (MS).In May, Azzara began a project looking into greening

the MS that will examine green port initiatives or U.S.ports, including incentive programs or vessels callingas well as port shoreside support such as trucks and railsystems.

Bagwill, who received her doctorate in Zoologyrom Oklahoma State Universityin May, has spent a lot o timetraveling as a communications

specialist with the NOAA FisheriesOce o Aquaculture. She haslearned a great deal about currentaquaculture research by attending theAquaculture America Conerence inLas Vegas, the Milord AquacultureSeminar on Shellsh Biology in

Westbrook, Conn., and the National Shellsh AssociationConerence in Seattle. She also met with researchers andaquaculture industry representatives rom around the

world during a workshop on the sustainability o marine

cage culture that examined new and currently used modelsor siting aquaculture operations and estimating theirenvironmental impacts.

When she was not traveling, Bagwill augmentedcontent or the oces website as well as the NOAAFishWatch website. She is also scheduling a webinarseries, putting together a paper comparing productioncosts o terrestrial and aquatic protein sources, working

with the NOAA Fisheries Aquaculture RegulatoryWorking Group to provide advice on regulatory and

permitting issues, and addressingvarious communications andoutreach issues as they arise.

Carr, who received hisdoctorate in Geography rom

exas A&M University in May,has been busy tweaking NOAApolicies and procedures as SeniorAdvisor to NOAAs Director oExternal Aairs, Andy Winer.

He is working on NOAAsFleet Plan or 2013-2027 thatidenties current and uture needsor NOAAs feet o research

vessels as they carry out oceanobserving missions in support o

NOAA programs dealing withsheries, emerging research and hydrographic mapping.He is also strengthening NOAAs Scientic IntegrityPolicy, which was created to protect scientic ndingsrom being suppressed, distorted or altered by politicalpressure, to strengthen science and to encourage a cultureo transparency. Te Scientic Integrity Policy applies toall NOAA employees career, political and contractor who conduct, supervise, assess or interpret scienticinormation on behal o NOAA.

apping into experiences he gained while studying

shermen and their communities in the Caribbean, Carrhas been tasked with ormulating NOAAs Caribbeanstrategy as the agency seeks to strengthen its presence inthe region, especially with its oreign partners. He is alsothe agencys representative to the U.S. Coral Ree askForce, which addresses pressingissues related to coral rees inAmerican jurisdictions.

Shortly beore he graduated, Carrspent time in Mexico educatinglocal shermen on sh spawning

aggregations, bathymetric mappingskills and opportunities to take partin the dive tourism industry with thegoal o decreasing shing pressure onthe sh populations when they gather to spawn.

K Fw g xp Wg,

D.c.: p://txsG.g; k k f K

g. Jim Hiney

Azzara (from left) Welder and Bagwill wade in the Gulf ofMexico at Freeport.

Liam Carr

April Bagwill

PhotobyJiMhiney

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Annapolis Christian,Langham Creek win TexasNOSB Regionals

Annapolis Christian Academy and Langham CreekHigh Schools A eam represented exas well at theNational Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) National FinalsCompetition in Baltimore, says the states NOSB regionalcoordinator.

Im extremely proud o these kids, says errieLooney, exas Sea Grant Coastal and Marine ResourcesAgent or Jeerson and Chambers Counties, who asregional coordinator accompanied the teams to Baltimoreor the nals in April. Tey worked incredibly hard andperormed well in the regional competitions, so they

earned their spots in the National Finals alongside theother 23 regional champions.

Despite stellar eorts, the two teams did not advancerom the competitions round-robin matches to the doubleelimination round.

Although they did not do as well as they wanted inBaltimore, the competition and associated events, liketours and a career air, gave the kids a unique opportunityto learn about aspects o ocean science that they wouldnot have been exposed to at home. I think this experiencehas changed the career paths o some o these students,

Looney says.

Hometown team Annapolis Christian Academy wonthe Loggerhead Challenge Regional NOSB Competitionon Feb. 4 at exas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Te team o Emily Borchardt, Andrew Hanks, AustinJones, Colton Garrett and Rylee Williams nished atop

a 10-team eld. Second place went to Corpus ChristiHomeschool Co-op, Chaparral Star Academy (Austin) A

eam placed third and Gregory-Portland High SchoolsB eam received the Dr. Wes unnell SportsmanshipAward.

Langham Creeks team o Andrew Hu, Syed Ali,Madison Selldin, Christina remel and Sydney Denmenearned their trip to Baltimore by winning the DolphinChallenge Regional NOSB Competition on March 3.

Te Houston school emerged at the top o a 10-team eldater a day o head-to-head matches held on the campuso exas A&M University at Galveston. Sanger HighSchools A eam nished second, Lubbock High Schoolplaced third and or the second straight year, PearlandsGlenda Dawson High School won the Ralph RayburnSportsmanship Award.

NOSB is intended to increase knowledge o theoceans on the part o high school students, their teachersand parents, and to raise the visibility and publicunderstanding o the national investment in ocean-relatedresearch.

During NOSB competitions, the students demonstratetheir knowledge o marine and coastal science byanswering questions rom biology, physics, chemistry,

geology, geography, mathematics and the social sciences.Te sportsmanship awards go to the teams judged bycompetition ocials to best embody the spirit o earnestcompetition while demonstrating exemplary decorum.

NOSB is managed nationally by the Consortium orOcean Leadership, a nonprot organization representing94 o the leading public and private ocean research andeducation institutions, aquaria and industry with themission to advance research, education and sound oceanpolicy.

Jim Hiney

Annapolis Christian Academy, from left: Emily Borchardt, Austin Jones,coach Sarah Borchardt, Andrew Hanks, assistant coach Jackie Hanks, RyleeWilliams and Colton Garrett.

Langham Creek, from left: Syed Ali, Andrew Hu, Madison Selldin, coachimothy Kraemer, Sydney Denmen and Christina remel.

Photob

yJiMhiney

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exas Sea Grants headquarters returned to the exasA&M University campus in late April ater two decadeso operating out o private oce buildings in Bryan andCollege Station.

exas Sea Grant is delighted to be back on the exasA&M University campus, says Dr. Pamela Plotkin,

exas Sea Grant Director. We are looking orwardto reinvigorating our relationship with exas A&M,maximizing opportunities to interact and partner with theuniversity community and contributing to the mission othis great institution in novel and meaningul ways.

All o the programs telephone and ax numbers andsta emails remain unchanged, but the mailing address isnow exas A&M University, MS 4115, College Station,

X 77843. Te physical address or delivery services is 730Lamar Street.exas Sea Grant is a partnership o university,

government and industry ocusing on marine research,

education and outreach. It is administered through theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationand is one o 32 university-based Sea Grant Programs

around the country. exas Sea Grant is based at exasA&M University, where it is classied as a non-academicresearch center within the College o Geosciences.

Jim Hiney

Changing tidesSeaood Specialist Mike Habywill retire on Aug. 31 ater 30 years with exas SeaGrant, but he will not be gone or good. Te Corpus Christi-based Haby will returnto work on a hal-time basis to conduct a number o special projects ocusing onseaood saety and economics. He graduated rom exas A&M University in 1974

with a bachelors degree in marketing. He began his Sea Grant career with the NewYork program in 1978 on a one-year appointment dealing with seaood business issuesand moved to Virginia Sea Grant in 1979 as an area agent. Haby came to exas SeaGrant in 1982, the same year he received his masters degree in Marine ResourcesManagement rom exas A&M University.

Miranda Rubach joined exas Sea Grant as its Reporting Coordinator in February.She is responsible or compiling inormation or mandated state and ederal reports.Rubach graduated rom Sam Houston State University in 2009 with a degree inaccounting. Beore joining exas Sea Grant, she worked or exas A&Ms Divisiono Finance in the Financial Management Operations and Budget and Planning

Departments.

John OConnell, who has been Matagorda County Coastal and Marine ResourcesAgent or the past nine years, moved his oce 40 miles northeast on SH 35 in earlyApril to become the new Brazoria County Coastal and Marine Resources Agent.OConnell replaced Rich illman, who retired in 2010 ater 14 years on the job. Teposition is unded jointly by the exas Sea Grant College Program, exas AgriLieExtension Service and Brazoria County.

Jim Hiney

Mike Haby

Miranda Rubach

John OConnell

Sea Grant moves back to campus

exas Sea Grant located in the AES Building at 730 Lamar St.

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The view from Plover Point Deck at the Laguna Atascosa NationalWildlife Refuge includes the Lower Laguna Madre and the City ofSouth Padre Island on the horizon. P h

o t o

b y t o n y R e i s i n g e R

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By Cindie Powell

Water, water everywhere...It might be dicult to think o something as wet as a bay or

estuary as being in a drought, but the devastation across Texasin 2011 also struck these coastal ecosystems.

11

Te exas drought o 2011 was the worst single-yeardrought in the state since recordkeeping began and mayturn out to be one o the costliest natural events in statehistory direct agricultural losses alone reached $7.62billion.

Its eects on the terrestrial environment were obvious

to see dry lakes and empty stock ponds, emaciatedlivestock and desiccated crops in the elds, and massive

wildres, including the worst in exas history, sweepingthrough the state.

But what about on the coast? Unlike on land, many othe coastal eects o a drought occur beneath the suraceo the water, hidden rom view.

exas coastal zone supports a series o estuaries,partially enclosed areas where rivers reshwater mingles

with tidal-driven seawater, that are home to vibrantecosystems and abundant lie. Tough a couple o the

states estuaries ace directly into the Gul o Mexico,most are in shallow, enclosed bays, protected rom theopen Gul by narrow barrier islands or peninsulas.

Estuaries have been called the nurseries o thesea, and are among the most productive habitats inthe world. Te lieblood o these coastal gems is thereshwater drainage rom rivers, some o which extendacross the entire state. When there is little water to drainbecause the rivers run through areas stricken by drought,reshwater infows are greatly reduced, aecting thesalinities in the estuaries and the amount o nutrientsbeing brought into each system.

All the bay habitat conditions change in a verydramatic way, says Dr. Paul Montagna, who holds theEndowed Chair or Ecosystem Studies and Modeling atthe Harte Research Institute or Gul o Mexico Studiesat exas A&M University-Corpus Christi (AMUCC).With higher salinities and lower nutrients, thenet result is a nutrient-starved bay. Tat sets up thebiological eects, and the ood chain gets starved as

well.

Te nutrients in reshwater infows stimulate thegrowth o primary producers, the algae, phytoplanktonand seagrasses that turn sunlight into ood energy andserve as the base or the ood web in the estuaries.Montagna, who studies the benthos, the bottom o waterbodies and the lie there, says the most immediate eect

o decreased reshwater infow is a loss o biodiversity.Much like on land, where the least drought-tolerantplants are the rst to die without adequate water, whenbay habitats are altered so much that they are outside therange o what the organisms living there can tolerate, theones that are the most sensitive disappear.

You start losing organisms rom species that cannotdeal with the change in conditions, either physiologicallyor ood-wise, he says. A direct eect is the organismcannot adapt physiologically to the high salinity. Teindirect eect is its ood disappears. Tey cant develop in

those conditions.Nearly all estuarine species that live on the bottom,

including species important to humans like shrimp, crabsand oysters, have a similar alternation o liestyle as theygo through their lie cycle eggs are released in the

water, and the organisms live in planktonic or foatingorm or a time beore settling to the bottom to changeinto their adult orm.

I the water conditions arent good when theyre inthat baby phase in the water column, then the babiesdont make it to the next generation, they die or dontsettle out, Montagna says.

Freshwater is important to the estuaries and coasts,but its not a direct eect its not as i pouring resh

water on the backs o things helps them its that thereshwater aects the habitat quality, and the habitatquality eects the organisms themselves, so theres adomino eect.

Te built-in lag rom this domino eect is one othe reasons it has been so dicult or researchers to tiespecic responses to particular foods and droughts.

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Once we started ocusing our research onunderstanding how the infow aects estuary habitatcondition, particularly as it relates to salinity zones, thenit became easy to relate the quality o the habitats to thequality o the biological response.

Salinity is measured in parts per thousand (ppt);

the Gul o Mexico and open ocean are around 35 ppt,and reshwater has a salinity o 0 ppt. Brackish water,somewhere between reshwater and ocean-level salinities,is the rule or nearly all estuaries, and the organisms thatlive there are adapted to tolerate a wide range o salinities,rom totally resh to totally marine.

Tey have to deal with a variable environment,Montagna says. But almost nothings adapted to live inhypersaline conditions, when salinity goes above 35. Tats

when things go bad. Droughts really dont start exhibitingproblems until we are up against that hypersaline barrier.

Ten all o a sudden things go really bad, really quickly.exas bays have a range o salinities rom north to

south, rom reshest to saltiest, which is a product o theirgeography and climate: north to south is also rom highestriver infows to lowest, and rom most rain to least. Te

exas Parks and Wildlie Department (PWD) measuressalinities in the bays, and during the 2011 drought, manyo them set records and all but one reached levels that

were saltier than the open ocean.Sabine Lake is by ar the reshest bay in the state. It

was the only exas bay not to reach hypersaline conditions

during the drought. Normal salinities there range romthe single digits to the low 10s, and salinities peaked in

August at 30 to 32 ppt.At the opposite end o the scale, the wide, shallow

Laguna Madre in South exas is in a class by itsel.With strong evaporation rom its large surace area, a dryclimate and little to no infows, it is requently hypersalinebut is still one o the most productive ecosystems in the

state. Organisms there are adapted to regular periods ohigh salinity. Heavy reshwater infows rom fooding canbe more stressul to Laguna Madre ecosystems than adrought the normal low infows allow or clearer waterslacking sediments, nutrients or turbidity, and combined

with its shallow depth, this means sunlight reaches thebottom nearly everywhere in the bay system. Largeseagrass meadows, including highly salinity-tolerant shoalgrass, support abundant lie, including nsh, crabs andshrimp, and wintering waterowl.

Dr. Ken Dunton, Proessor o Marine Science at Te

University o exas Marine Science Institute (UMSI)in Port Aransas, says seagrass ecosystems overall are airlytolerant o salinity increases.

We oten see salinity values well over 40 duringdrought periods, and sometimes greater than 50 inthe Laguna Madre, which has limited water exchange

with the Gul. In the short term, thats not detrimentalto seagrasses, he says. Over the long term, salinitiesgreater than 50 are likely detrimental to some species particularlyTalassiatestudinum (turtle grass). urtle grass,

which is a robust perennial species, will likely die back,

and other more weedy species, like shoal grass (Halodulewrightii) will replace it. Shoal grass is quite salt-tolerant

and has historically dominatedhypersaline lagoon areas in

exas.Dunton says extremely high

salinities over a period o yearscould result in a short-termloss o seagrass cover in someareas until species like shoalgrass invade areas that becomeunvegetated. Te biggestthreat he sees is the loss oseagrass species diversity.South exas is blessed witha mosaic o seagrass habitatscharacterized by ve seagrassspecies. I would hate to seethese communities dominatedby one or two species oseagrasses. Tis could have

12

Lower Laguna Madre

Upper Laguna Madre

Corpus Christi Bay

Aransas

San Antonio

Matagorda

Galveston Bay

Sabine Lake

CHANGES IN BAY SALINITIES,

2011 DROUGHT

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65

Upper end of normal range

Salinity extremes, 2011 drought

Parts per thousandD tx Pkd Wdf Dpm

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15/40Texas Shores | 13

eects on the auna and, ocourse, the ecological resiliencyo the system.

Te Upper Laguna Madreis typically the saltiest bay in

exas. According to reports

rom PWD, it went intothe drought ar resher thanusual rom Hurricane Dollyin 2008 and other storms. Asa result, its salinity peakedin November at only 60ppt. Te Upper Lagunais connected by the GulIntracoastal Waterway to theLower Laguna Madre, whichreceives infows rom the

Arroyo Colorado, BrownsvilleShip Channel and the Rio Grande. Te Lower Lagunapeaked in salinity in the mid-50s ppt. At press time, bothparts o the Laguna Madre were still hypersaline.

Four other exas bays, Galveston, Matagorda, SanAntonio and Aransas, have similar salinities or a normalrange, rom the teens to the mid- to upper 20s ppt. Allbroke salinity records during the drought to the upper30s to 40 ppt or San Antonio Bay, up to the low 40s orGalveston and Matagorda, and up to the mid-40s orAransas. Corpus Christi Bay, where the normal range is

rom the 20s to the low 30s, is just a little saltier than theour bays to its north. It peaked in November at the mid-40s. Galveston and Matagorda bays were hypersaline rom

June to September, and San Antonio, Aransas and CorpusChristi bays stayed saltier than the open ocean rom Julyor August to November.

As there is a gradient o salinities rom one end o thecoast to the other, there are also salinity gradients withineach bay resher water near the river infows, saltier

water near the ocean passes. Montagna says these salinityzones are extremely important to benthic organisms,providing a cue or the juvenile stages o many species tond nursery habitat, which are usually closer to the rivermouth.

Tey just have to ollow the lower salinity up the bay,so to speak. And those lower salinity zones always providenursery habitats, which are necessary or the babies togrow up. During dry conditions, the size o that nurseryhabitat can shrink down to virtually nothing, he adds.Tose gradients need to exist or the organisms cannotcomplete their lie cycle, at least not successully.

Montagna says the salinity sweet spot or greatestproductivity in the states estuaries is around 18 ppt, buteven up to the 20s and low 30s is not bad, and ironicallycan bring some benets. Fish love those marineconditions, and marine organisms rom the ocean willmigrate into the bay, so you actually get increased diversityand increased productivity in terms o biomass.

Te species composition in each bay refects the typicalrange o conditions there, with more reshwater-lovingspecies in the north and more o those that are adapted to

higher salinities in the south. PWDs regular samplingso sh in the bays ound record numbers o probablemigrants in all 2011 during the height o the drought.According to Jerry Mambretti, PWDs Sabine LakeEcosystem Leader, hundreds o alligator gar were ound inthe Salt Bayou marsh complex near the Keith Lake FishPass, probably seeking lower salinities. Tey are usuallyound in less dense populations in areas o the marshcomplex west and south o Keith Lake. Te Sabine Lakesamples also nabbed record numbers o marine sh likeAtlantic croaker and other nsh, including lookdowns

and pinsh, and near-record catches o sand seatrout,sheepshead, southern founder, Spanish mackerel and spotcroaker, and in the total numbers o sh caught.

Bill Balboa, PWDs Galveston Bay EcosystemLeader, says several species took the salinity changes asan opportunity to expand their ranges into new parts oGalveston Bay, too. All throughout the bay, there werebarnacles on almost everything a barnacle could set on,even up in rinity Bay where you dont normally see a loto barnacles, because theyre a saltier animal.

Alligator gar, which can survive in back-marsh waters with very low oxygen levels, were among the speciesdisplaced by higher salinities in exas bays during the 2011 drought.

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Oysters colonized the upper areas o rinity Bay aterthe drought and higher than normal salinities in the bayduring the preceding two years. We had some really goodoyster production near Oak Island.

Te oystermen were actually up there shing in areaswhere they traditionally dont sh, because the oysters

had two or three years o higher salinity, he says. Tetransition point that keeps the predators low and diseaselow shited up the bay gradually through time. With theincreasing salinity, it went rom the middle o GalvestonBay to halway up rinity Bay.

rinity Bay also saw unusually high populations oFlorida pompano, cownose rays and ladysh, all higher-salinity species. PWDs all surveys showed the Floridapompano in locations where smallmouth bualo andblue catsh would ordinarily be ound. Te reshwaterspecies were gone. Tey were probably way up in the

river somewhere, because the normally single-digitsalinity at the top o

rinity Bay was in themid-20s, Balboa says.Later surveys in thespring, ater the rainshad brought salinitiesback to normal ranges,showed the smallmouthbualo and blue catsh were back where they belonged,and the Florida pompano had disappeared.

Te resilience o all these systems is incredible.Animals come, animals go, they adapt, they changelocations, they shit around based on what salinity theypreer and where the ood is, he says. I they werent ableto adapt to droughts and then foods, they wouldnt behere. Id have to say the bays not the easiest place to live,either. You have to be pretty hardy.

Fish more commonly ound in the nearshore Gul oMexico were not the only temporary residents in the baysystems. One very unwelcome visitor was Karenia brevis,the algae responsible or red tide.

Bad tidingsIt started with PWD reports o stressed sh in

the Brownsville Ship Channel on September 9. onyReisinger, exas Sea Grants Cameron County Coastaland Marine Resources Agent, took a water sample andconrmed it was K. brevis on September 15. By then, shkills had begun occurring on the Lower Laguna Madre,South Bay and Boca Chica Beach.

Te red tide o 2011 was one o the largest on recordor exas. It extended rom the Lower Laguna Madre tothe southern end o Galveston Bay and killed 4.4 millionsh, including striped mullet, scaled sardine, Gul kingsh,Atlantic bumper, pinsh, spotted seatrout, red drum, blackdrum and southern founder. Tis was the biggest one

in over a decade, says Meridith Byrd, PWDs HarmulAlgal Bloom (HAB) Coordinator.

It was also one o the longest-lasting blooms in recentmemory. From my experience, which has been since 2004,by the time Tanksgiving rolls around, the worst o thebloom has been over, but that was not the case this year.

We were still seeing lots o discolored water, lots o shkills even through the end o the year, she says.

K. brevis is a single-celled phytoplankton dinofagellatethat can move around using two hair-like appendages. It isound in the open ocean and Gul o Mexico year-round

in low concentrations, but when it reaches concentrationso only ve cells in a milliliter o water, it triggersadvisories and shery closures by state agencies. No onecan say denitively what prompts the algae to rapidlymultiply, or bloom. When the red tide is visible as patchesor streamers o discolored water, it can have cell counts inthe millions o cells per milliliter. Blooms typically ormoshore and come into the bays through the inlets andpasses.

Te drought means less reshwater infow coming intoour bays, and so raising the salinity o the bays and our

nearshore waters can leave us more susceptible to a bloom we think. Not everyone agrees, Byrd says.

Te rst documented red tide in exas was in 1935,although ships logs rom Spanish explorers describe whatmay have been red tides occurring in the Gul o Mexicoas ar back as the 1600s. Similar blooms occur occasionallythroughout the world. Several dierent species can causethe tell-tale red discoloration o the water, and mostspecies are not toxic, although the rapid prolieration canstarve water and thus marine lie o oxygen. In the Gulo Mexico, red tides are usually caused byK. brevis, andFlorida is plagued by them even more requently than

exas.Te 2011 red tide was unusual in that it ollowed a

dierent pattern o expansion. Usually a bloom orms atone part o the coast and spreads outward, but last yearseemed to have two blooms occurring simultaneously atopposite ends o the coast.

A red tide in August ormed o the northern YucatanPeninsula, and Byrd says she was not surprised that K.brevis in exas was rst reported in the Brownsville Ship

Id have to say the baysnot the easiest place tolive ... You have to be

pretty hardy. Bill Balboa

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Channel. However, by September 22, a bloom was alsoreported between San Luis Pass and Surside on the uppercoast.

For us to simultaneously have a bloom at South Padreand then one up near Surside but none in between that was kind o interesting, she says. Tat bloom rom

the north, I think, pushed downward, especially along theIntracoastal Waterway, and then the bloom south in theSouth Padre area got pulled north along the Gul beaches,and they kind o met in the middle.

PWD had reports o red tide in Port OConnor,Indianola and Port Manseld by October 6, at MustangIsland State Park by October 10, at the Padre IslandNational Seashore by October 12, and in San Antonio andMatagorda bays by October 16.

On October 28, PWD surveyed the upper coast romthe air and detected a visible bloom in the Gul o Mexico

rom Galveston Island to Freeport and at Pass Cavallourther south. Tey ound visible red tide in San Antonio,Lavaca, Matagorda, East Matagorda, Chocolate andLower Galveston bays, Swan Lake and at the exas CityDike.

By November, the bloom was still fourishing, withsome concentrations o cells too numerous to count.Rockport-Corpus Christi joined the list o areas aected,and sh kills continued along Gul beaches and inside thebays.

In December, cell counts began to drop on the lower

and upper coast, although the mid-coast bloom was stillgoing strong. Finally, in January, the rains began and thebloom was nearly gone by the end o the month.

Once we started getting rain ater the rst o the year,thats really what killed o the bloom, Byrd says. Tecold temperatures werent really doing it. Wed get coldronts, but temperatures would be back up in to the 70sduring the day, so they really werent making a whole lot odierence.

One reason K. brevis blooms are o such concern isbecause the cells produce a neurotoxin called brevetoxin

that aects the central nervous systems o sh, birds,mammals and invertebrates. When the K. brevis cells ina coastal bloom are ruptured, such as by waves in the surzone along the coast, the brevetoxin is aerosolized. It canirritate the eyes and respiratory systems o people on the

exas Parks and Wildlife Departments aerial survey of red tide found a large patch of it on the doorstep of the agencys Perry R. Bass Marine FisheriesResearch Station in Palacios.

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beach, potentially creating a serious health hazard orasthmatics and others with respiratory conditions.

Te toxin accumulates in the visceral organs o aquaticanimals, and people or animals that consume them mayexperience neurotoxic shellsh poisoning (NSP), a short-term illness that can have symptoms that are neurological,

such as tingling in the extremities, or gastrointestinal innature. Most human cases o NSP are caused by eatingoysters, which as lter eeders can accumulate higherconcentrations o toxin in their organs, and unlike mostsh are consumed whole, including the organs. Assoon as a red tide is detected, the exas Department oState Health Services (DSHS) shuts down shellshharvesting.

Dr. Paul Zimba, Director o the Center or CoastalStudies at AMUCC, began analyzing the concentrationso brevetoxin during the red tide o 2009 and continued

his work during the 2011 bloom with graduate studentAlexandra Raalski.

When you have a sh kill event, it can be due tothree things, Zimba says. It can be due to the algae cellsbeing so dense that they remove all the oxygen rom the

water, and the animals die because o anoxia. Te secondincidence is when you have the concentration o toxin,

which actually kills the sh rom the toxin dose. Te thirdis when sh eat other dead sh and bioaccumulate thetoxin. We largely had sh dying rom toxin exposure.

His laboratory collected or received dead and dyinganimals shorebirds, including redhead ducks romSouth Padre Island and cormorants rom Corpus Christito South Padre, invertebrates such as crabs, shrimp, marine

worms and large jellysh, possums, dolphins, coyotes andmany species o sh and all were ound to be casualties

o the brevetoxin. Zimba says Padre Island NationalSeashore bore the brunt o dead animals being washedashore, and the highest cell counts in the water were romPort Manseld north. Te birds and mammals are believedto have ingested the toxin by eating sh or shellsh, orpossibly shoal grass in the case o the redhead ducks.

Teir research has also ound that hal o the toxin insh killed and washed up on the beach breaks down inrom our and a hal to nine days. He says the inormationshould be o help to the managers who are responsible ordeciding when they can discontinue health advisories or

beach areas without risking high-level exposure or peoplewho come to the beach, especially those who bring dogsthat may eat beached sh.

Are healthy-looking sh rom red tide areas sae to eat?Zimba is noncommittal.

Tere are known human health risks associated withexposure to the aerosol and in consumption o large doses,as are ound in oysters, but other health impacts are largelyunknown, he says.

Te human health risk rom brevetoxin is one reasonthat early detection o a bloom is

critical. Te current method in use tomonitor a bloom is to collect watersamples and study them under amicroscope to count the number oK. brevis cells, which requires trainedpersonnel who can recognize the cellsand dierentiate them rom otherorganisms in the sample. It is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process.

In the 1980s, exas Sea GrantsReisinger and Don Hockaday, thenacting director o Te Universityo exas-Pan Americans (UPA)Coastal Studies Laboratory on SouthPadre Island, decided to help PWDby collecting and analyzing watersamples. Tey asked Floridas Dr. KarenSteidinger, a leading expert in redtide and other HABs the Karenin Karenia brevis to train them toidentiy and count the cells.Karenia brevis cell.

PhotocourtesyFloriDaFishanDWilDliFec

onservationcoMMission

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Ater trying to keepup with a bloom in 1986that killed 22 millionsh and a couple osubsequent red tidesin the early 1990s,

Reisinger and Hockadayrecognized that there

was more work than theycould do themselves tomonitor a bloom as wellas they would like, sothey enlisted volunteersto collect water samplesor them. When theythen ound themselvesoverwhelmed with

samples to analyze, theytook the next step andtrained the volunteers todo the cell counts as well.

oday, a cadre o adozen experienced Red

ide Rangers, trainedby Reisinger, Hockadayand others, respond to redtides by collecting water samples, doing the cell countsat the UPA laboratory, noting the numbers o dead sh

that may have washed ashore and gauging the severity oany aerosolized brevetoxin rom the cells breaking apart inthe sur. Additional Rangers monitor just the sh kills andaerosols, and still others have been trained but have not

yet been tested by a red tide bloom.Were like the Minutemen were ready in a minute

to respond to a red tide, Reisinger says. Its importantbecause red tide can be problematic or people withasthma, and or pets on the beach too. I we monitor thebloom we can warn people to avoid red tide areas.

He is working with other exas Sea Grant Coastaland Marine Resources Agents to replicate the Red

ide Rangers in other counties along the exas coast.So ar they have conducted trainings in Matagorda andGalveston counties.

Te South Padre Island group, which received a GulGuardian Award rom the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency in 2006, is now primarily coordinated by BrigetteGoza, a research assistant at the Coastal Studies Lab. Te

volunteers cell count inormation is communicated toPWDs Byrd, who issues statewide advisories about the

presence o red tide and other harmul algae.We have a limited number o biologists and sta who

can do routine monitoring during a red tide, Byrd says.o have a coordinated, trained network o volunteersdown at South Padre Island has been so helpul to us, andso important.

Tey go out and collect every weekday. Without themwe wouldnt have nearly the amount o data coming inrom that area, because we just physically wouldnt be ableto collect it.

While a red tide is ongoing, Byrd submits the cellcount data she has available rom PWD, DSHSand the Red ide Rangers to the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where it isincorporated in its Harmul Algal Bloom OperationalForecast System or the Gul o Mexico. Te orecastsystem uses satellite imagery, eld observations, models,public health reports and buoy data, and sends outinormation about the location, extent and potential ordevelopment or movement oK. brevis blooms to naturalresource managers and other bloom monitors, includingthe Rangers, in the orm o a regular Harmul AlgalBloom Bulletin, which is also available on the web.

Because a red tide bloom orms oshore beore

Seasoned Red ide Ranger Leslie Sweeten with he University of exas-Pan American Coastal Studies Laboratorycollects a red tide sample f rom the surf near the lab on South Padre Island during the 2011 bloom. Sweeten is a veteran ofnine blooms on the island and is considered an essential contributor to the sampling and training program.

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moving into the bays, the satellite imagery o chlorophyllconcentrations oshore combined with the wind speedand direction inormation also in the bulletin can providean early warning that a red tide may be on the way.Advance notice lets monitoring groups like the Red ideRangers mobilize their

samplers and plantheir eorts. In return,

when the NOAAsatellites show thepresence o a bloom innearshore waters, themonitoring done bythe Rangers and othersprovides important groundtruthing or the imagery.

Byrd says another vital source o inormation aboutthe presence o HAB species is the Imaging FlowCytobot

(IFCB) deployed on the research pier at UMSI in PortAransas by Dr. Lisa Campbell, Proessor o Oceanographyand Biology at exas A&M University (AMU). Te pierprovides access to the waters in the Aransas Pass tidal inletconnecting the open Gul with the bay systems there an ideal location to rst identiy any incoming K. brevis orother HAB cells.

Flow cytometry was originally developed or medicalapplications or studying cells in bodily fuids. RobertOlson and Heidi Sosik, scientists at the Woods HoleOceanographic Institution (WHOI), adapted the

technology and combined it with video capture to monitormicroscopic plant and animal lie in the ocean or basicresearch. Campbell, interested in the applications or HABmonitoring, collaborated with the WHOI investigatorsto deploy the IFCB in the Gul o Mexico beginning inSeptember 2007. In February 2008, just ew months aterthe instrument was set up, Campbell noticed increasinglevels oDinophysis ovum, a single-celled organism thatcan cause diarrheic shellsh poisoning in people who eattainted oysters, clams or mussels and that had never beorebeen detected at bloom concentrations on the exas coast.She was able to alert state health ocials just beore theRockport Oysterest in time to prevent anyone romalling ill rom eating tainted oysters.

With research unding rom exas Sea Grantbeginning in early 2010, Campbell studied changes inpopulation concentrations o the microzooplankton thateat algal cells and is evaluating the use o their abundanceas a predictor o a bloom ewer grazers, the theory goes,means the algae can accumulate aster than it is eaten andthus provides an opportunity or a bloom.

Te IFCB works by pumping water past a laser andvideo camera. Te laser hits each cell and causes any withchlorophyll, such as K. brevis, to fuoresce. Tis signalsthe camera to record an image, and the images are sent

via internet to Campbells laboratory in College Stationor analysis. Campbells graduate student, Laura Harred,

is using programs to teach computers to detect K. brevisand other cells based on their size, shape and structure tourther automate the process.

During the 2011 red tide, the IFCB detected verylow concentrations oK. brevis in the Port Aransas shipchannel in July months beore it reached that part othe coast at bloom levels. Byrd calls the IFCB invaluableto PWDs eorts.

Lisa contacts me and Kirk Wiles with DSHS anytime she sees even one to two cells per milliliter oKareniaor Dinophysis, or anything that might at some point cause

a problem down the road. At one to two cells per milliliter,it might take our to eight weeks or that to develop into aull-blown bloom.

Unortunately, the IFCB, valued at more than$100,000, was vandalized over Spring Break 2012 andis currently out o commission. Te equipment must bereplaced, and there are additional expenses associated withthe calibration and deployment o a new instrument.

Also receiving support rom exas Sea Grant, Dr.Daniel Tornton, Associate Proessor o Oceanography at

AMU, has been exploring the potential o less expensive

technology or HAB monitoring. Laser in situ scatteringand transmissometry (LISS) uses laser light scatteringand is a common technique or measuring detailed sizedistributions and concentrations o small suspendedparticles in water. A laser beam passes through the

water, and the particles in the water scatter the light. Tecombined scattering pattern rom all the particles in thebeam is collected on an array o photodiodes.

In the laboratory, Tornton and graduate studentLauren Railey have been able to determine the scatteringsignatures o HAB-orming dinofagellate species atbloom-level concentrations. In later tests that addedHAB cells to natural waters that included backgroundnoise rom sediments and other particles normally oundthere, they were again able to detect the HABs at bloomconcentrations.

We can certainly detect bloom concentrations odinofagellates, the problem is that dinofagellates are

very similar in shape, and I dont think we can distinguishvery well between species, Tornton says. Te advantageo our technique is its relatively low cost and relatively

Were like Minutemen were ready in a minuteto respond to red tide.

ony Reisinger

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simple, but you would still need somebody at some stageto do microscopic conrmations, and you would have touse our instrument in conjunction with other instruments,like a chlorophyll fuorometer.

He says the real potential or LISS in HABmonitoring would be or mapping the extent o a known

bloom. Te LISS is commercially available, its relativelycheap and simple to operate, and you can just throw itin the water. I you did have a red tide that you knew

was there, our instrument is very good or synopticallymapping that, because you can drag it behind a boat.

Even as researchers are searching or ways to makeit easier to detect and monitor K. brevis, there are stillmany unanswered questions about the organism itsel. Itstoxicity seems to vary rom year to year a similar bloomin 1986 killed 22 million sh, compared to 4.5 millionthis year. Similar species in other parts o the world orm

resting cysts and sink to the bottom to become the seedsor the next years population. Does K. brevis do the same?

No one can say or sure.No one has ever identied the ull lie history o

Karenia brevis, AMUs Campbell says. No one has everdocumented that (cyst stage) or documented anythingrom the sediments.

Just as much mystery surrounds what causes a bloom

to orm. Infuences that have been cited include iron-richdust rom the Sahara causing a cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, bloom that puts nitrogen in the water columnto drive K. brevis production, which is then perpetuatedas nutrients are released rom the decomposition o shkilled by the bloom; wind-driven upwelling o nutrientsrom the sea foor on the Florida coast; and recently, by a

AMU researcher, wind-driven downwelling at the exascoast that amasses populations oK. brevis cells by pilingthem up near the shore.

In the latter hypothesis, proposed by Dr. Robert

Hetland, Associate Proessor o Oceanography, seasonalwinds in the Gul o Mexico combine with the Earths

rotation (the Coriolis eect, which alsocauses hurricanes to spin) and the geographyo the shoreline to cause a downwelling o

water near the exas coast in the all water near the surace moves toward thecoast, is shoved down deeper, then createsa deep return fow back out to sea. As the

water moves toward shore and then down,it compresses the surace layer o water. At

the same time, K. brevis cells in the suracelayer swim upward so they can continue togather energy rom the sun. Eventually thecell concentrations reach levels high enoughto see with the naked eye as a large bloom,but the convergence o cells might be bettercharacterized as a trac jam.

Hetlands theory can account or an upto 1,000-times increase in cell count, whichmight better explain the rapid explosion ocell counts during a bloom, since the cells candouble only every two to three days throughreproduction alone. He and Campbell usedinormation rom the 2005 and 2009 exasred tides, including records o physicalconditions such as wind direction andintensity leading up to the bloom, to conrmhis model.

Not knowing or certain what causes ared tide to orm makes it doubly dicult toprevent one or reduce its size or duration.

Graduate student Laura Harred and Dr. Lisa Campbell with their lab version of an ImagingFlowcytobot.

PhotobyJiMhiney

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Economic impacts rom K. brevis blooms have includedlosses in tourism dollars, including recreational shingbusinesses, and to commercial sheries rom consumerears o purchasing any kind o seaood rom red tide areas.Other costs include beach cleanups, HAB monitoringand medical expenses. An economic survey o Galveston

County ater the 2000 red tide there estimated a directeconomic impact o between $9.9 and $11.5 million.A study rom an earlier bloom on South Padre Islandestimated that it was responsible or a 10 percent declinein hotel/motel taxes there.

Economic losses across all sectors o the economy romthe 2011 red tide have not yet been calculated, but onesegment about which there is inormation is the oysterharvesting industry, which was hit hard rom a season cutin hal.

Red tides, oysterman bluesFor the oyster industry, the 2011 red tide was the

worst red tide event in exas since weve been recordingthe inormation, according to Lance Robinson, PWDsUpper CoastRegionalDirector andtheir oysterspecialist.

Weve

had closuresperiodicallyup and downthe coast, butthere usuallyhas been abay systemor somethingopen (to oysterharvesting).

Tis onecovered everybay systemon the exascoast, he says.

Tepresenceo red tideprompted thestates healthdepartment to

close all oyster bays in exas three weeks beore openingday o the public ree harvest season, and the lingeringpresence oK. brevis in the water and later the brevetoxinthat had accumulated in the oysters kept the rees closedor three months in some areas and even longer in others.

For a shery with a season that lasts six months, rom

November 1 to April 30, the three-month closure wasdevastating. PWD estimates oyster landings dropped by$9.9 million rom last year due to the red tide and otheractors.

Tats just the price paid to the shermen, it doesntactor in the losses to the shucking plants and all theother industries and companies along the pipeline as thatproduct moves to the consumer, Robinson says.

San Antonio Bay was the rst to open, on January 27,but parts o Matagorda Bay werent open to harvest untilApril 8. Some sections o Galveston Bay were able to

open in early March, but then were closed again later thatmonth because runo rom heavy rains resulted in highbacteria levels entering the water, posing human healthrisks. In those parts o the bay, the season lasted onlythree weeks.

20

Oyster boats in Calhoun County head out at dawn for a day of harvesting.

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Unlike nsh, which are killed rom exposure to the K.brevis toxin, oysters are not susceptible to the toxins in thered tide and may appear normal. Even ater the red tidealgae has disappeared and water tests show it is no longerpresent, there is an additional delay as the oysters clear thebrevetoxin rom their organs.

DSHS monitors the oyster beds and determineswhen each is clear and its oysters sae or consumption,and thus open or harvest. Te amount o time can varydepending on a number o environmental actors thataect how quickly the oysters can fush the toxins romtheir systems and the concentration o brevetoxin in theoyster. Because o the warm waters during the wintero 2011-12, the oysters cleared the brevetoxin relativelyquickly in just 15-20 days in many cases possiblybecause they were more active during the unusually warm

winter temperatures. In comparison, the 1996 red tide

bloom required 30 days between the end o the red tideand the time when oysters were sae to harvest.According to PWD data, total oyster landings by

weight or October 2011 through April 2012 decreasedby 44.2 percent compared to the average o the ve yearsbeore the red tide. Te ex-vessel value, the dollars paid tooystermen or the catch, saw a 30 percent drop.

Value, though still down, did a bit better primarilybecause the price per sack was higher, perhaps as a resulto increased demand within the market, Robinson says.

Te ve-year averages or the rst two months othe public season, November and December, were $3.3million and $2.2 million, which was income lost to theshermen during those months in 2011 because the rees

were closed to harvest.In the last ew days o January 2012, when the only

area open was part o San Antonio Bay, oyster shermenwere paid $200,706, compared to $2.2 million in anaverage year. Soon ater, however, as more bay systemsopened or harvest, oystermen were able to partially makeup or the lost time the oysters were still on the reesand had an additional three months or more to grow.

Te shermen brought in $3.0 million in February, $3.6

million in March and $2.7 million in April, comparedto average ex-vessel values o $1.9 million in Februaryand March and $1.4 million in April. Even so, it wasimpossible or them to make up completely or the lostharvest time.

Teres no way they would have been able to doubleproduction or the three months that they lost physically they couldnt do it, Robinson says. Sack limitsalso were reduced this year and the legal times they wereshing were reduced. Tose were conounding issues thatcontributed to reductions in landings.

Each sack weighs about 110 pounds and yields onaverage a bit more than six pounds o meat. PWDinstituted new regulations during the 2011-12 oysterseason, lowering the maximum number o sacks shermencould harvest per day rom 90 to 50 and changing the endo the harvesting day rom sunset to 3:30 p.m. Robinson

says the changes were made in response to requests romthe industry, both shermen and dealers, to reduce theharvest pressure on the oyster rees, especially in theearly parts o the season immediately ater spawning,

when oysters are not at their best. Delaying the harvest isdesigned to ensure that more are available or harvest laterin the season as temperatures decrease, oysters build uptheir stores o glycogen and plump up, with their favorpeaking in the coldest month, February.

Buddy reybig, owner o Arnolds Seaood and BuddysSeaood in Matagorda, which serve about 90 restaurants

across exas, says the drought, a late start to the seasonand a warm winter were a bad combination.

Oysters on the uphill rom November get atter untilthe end o March, when they start deteriorating. With the

water temperatures being so warm, the oysters really didnthave a chance. With the hot winter and the drought in thesummer, it was bad all the way around or the oysters, hesays.

We need reshwater and we need it at the right times,when oysters are spawning and spats are trying to set. Weneed the right conditions.

He usually deals only in exas oysters, but says that thisyear he needed to supplement the local crop with about30 percent oysters rom Louisiana. reybig, who is also ashrimp sherman, buys oysters rom his own boats androm other shermen, and he says his prots were lowerthis year because o increases in the cost per sack o oysterrom the shermen.

Nobody made money this year, he says. I was luckyto get my product put up so I would have something togive to my clientele.

reybig says there is a careul balancing act or pricinga luxury item like oysters.

Im selling the end product. I you go too high on thatmeat price, restaurants will take it o the menu. Were nota product that people have to have i bread and eggs goup, people will still buy it. I oysters and crabs and shrimpgo up, people dont buy it. We can put ourselves out obusiness economically and physically.

Lisa Halili, vice president o Prestige Oysters in SanLeon, said her company also was impacted by conditionselsewhere in the country. Some o their customers have

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stopped shucking themselves and have been purchasingpre-shucked rozen oysters. High reight costs o shippingrom the Gul o Mexico is also a consideration. Temarket in Virginia, usually one o their biggest buyers,

was able to get oysters rom Chesapeake Bay. Te recentfoods in the eastern United States have driven back oyster

parasites and contributed to a rebound in the rees there.Tey were able to get oysters rom their own bay, o

course theyre notgoing to buy romdown here. WithVirginia and theCarolinas, all thestates that fooded,starting to getoysters back, I dontknow what the

season will be likenext year, she says.

We have a loto things against usor next season. We need a big break.

Te eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is the speciesound in the Gul o Mexico and all along the easternAtlantic. In exas, oysters spawn rom spring to all, witha peak in the spring, triggered by rising temperatures, andanother spike in the all. During its rst ew weeks o lie,a young oyster will drit in the water column, transorming

through dierent lie stages. Eventually it will set cement itsel to hard substrate, usually other oyster shells,and metamorphose at last into a tiny oyster called a spat.From the time it sets, it will grow to three inches insize market size, the point at which it can be legallyharvested in 18 to 24 months.

Statewide, PWD estimates there are currentlyslightly more than 43,000 acres o oyster habitat. O that,approximately 26,000 acres are in Galveston Bay. TeMatagorda Bay complex, including East Matagorda andMatagorda Bay, makes up about 7,500 acres, San Antonio

Bay has about 5,500 acres, and Aransas Bay is about 3,200acres in size. Small oyster ree acreage in the Sabine Lakecomplex is not commercially harvested.

exas oysters on your plate are harvested rom eitherpublic rees or private leases. About three quarters o exasoysters come rom the public rees, with its six-month-long harvest season. Te remainder are harvested year-round rom one o 43 private leases that range in size rom11 to 100 acres in Galveston Bay. Te acreage is leasedrom the exas General Land Oce, and the leaseholders

receive a certicate o location that privatizes the oysterson their lease. Te oysters are moved there rom rees thatare closed to harvesting because o human health risk,such as locations on the shoreline near municipalities oragriculture where there is a risk o ecal coliorm bacteria

washing o the land into the water.

Under a special permit issued by PWD, theleaseholders are allowed, typically in May and September,to go into the restricted waters, pick the oysters up, putthem on their boats, and then transport them to theirlease and dump them over the side. Te oysters can purgethemselves o bacteria and even heavy metals i givensucient time.

Te purpose behind the lease program is to keepthe oysters in these restricted areas thinned down a bit,Robinson says. Tat way, when we move into the publicseason in November, theres less incentive or someone

to go into a closed area and harvest these illegal oysterscontaining high bacteria, and those getting commingledinto the ood pipeline and potentially somebody gettingsick. Its a management strategy or making the resourceavailable or industry that would otherwise not beavailable, but probably more importantly, or managing therisk to human health.

Te old adage about only eating oysters in a monthwith an R in it stems rom the need to keep the shellshcool to discourage bacterial growth. Oysters are harvestedollowing a time-temperature matrix that, based on water

temperature, limits the time between an oyster rst hittingthe deck and it being placed under rerigeration. Duringthe public ree season, the number o hours until theoysters must be rerigerated is as long as or longer than thelength o the harvest day.

Troughout the rest o the year, when only the privateleases are being harvested, the time drops considerably down to just one hour in July and August. However,the boats that work the private leases are equipped withrerigeration equipment that makes it possible to meetthe deadlines, making the old adage no longer applicable,

Robinson says.Fishing is a competitive business, with a goal o

catching more than the other shermen, oyster shermenincluded. But prompted in large part by the 2011 red tide,oystermen ormed the Union o Commercial Oystermeno exas, which at last count had 305 members, mainlyboat owners, captains and deck hands. Te groupspresident, Mauricio Blanco, is an independent shrimpand oyster sherman in Port Lavaca. He says when heapproached public ocials about a disaster declaration or

22

(Oysters) are naturesvacuum cleaner theywill clean the bays all bythemselves i you leavethem alone, ltering all the

time. Lance Robinson

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Oyster f ishermen unload their catch at Mishos dock in Seadrift Harbor on April 30, 2012, thlast day of the public ree f oyster season.

the oyster shery because o the red tide, theyasked who he represented.

As shermen we dont share inormation.On a daily basis, thats our livelihood, and themore knowledge you have, you catch the mostand create a bigger payday, Blanco says. Weormed the union because we saw a need to getorganized.

It was a common need, a commonproblem, he says. Tat was the reason why wecreated the union we want to manage ourresources and were tired o being ignored.

Blanco says the sherman also want to havemore input in issues like the reduced sack limit,

which limited their ability to catch up rom thethree months o the season that were lost.

PWDs Robinson has been encouragingthe shermen to organize or years.

Teyve reached out to local and ederal legislatorsover issues and concerns that they have experienced, hesays. Hopeully they will stay organized and active.

Robinson says the exas Governors Oce hasasked the U.S. Department o Commerce to reviewthe circumstances surrounding last years oyster seasonor a possible disaster declaration or the impact o thered tide on the shery. Commerces National MarineFisheries Service is the department that would make thedecision. Tere is no pot o money out there waiting ora declaration to occur, he says. I NOAA determinesthat there is enough evidence to show the sherysuered a disaster, Congress would have to appropriate orredistribute unds to provide assistance.

Oysters serve an important unction inthe bays beyond being the catch o the day.Montagna at the Harte Research Institutesays that while they are a valuable commerciacrop, they are invaluable or the benets theyprovide to the ecosystem.

Tey are natures vacuum cleaner they will clean the bays all by themselvesi you leave them alone, ltering all thetime, he says. Tey also provide shorelinestabilization. A lot o them live along theedges, and they cement together the shorelineso you dont get erosion. Teyre great

bioengineers, creating habitat or other organisms as well.Oysters are pretty darn important or bay ecology.

Dr. Sammy Ray, Proessor Emeritus o Marine Biologyat exas A&M University at Galveston, has been studyingoysters or more than 60 years. He says they are anexcellent biological indicator o the health o exas bays.

I the oysters are doing well, many other estuarine-dependent species are also, he says. I we keep the oystershealthy, the bays are in good shape or other things. Teoyster is equivalent to the canary in the coalmine to tell

you o danger.Te oyster plays a great role. I we never ate another

oyster, its still important or us to have oyster productionin our bays.

Continued on page 25

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Aw, Shucks!They sink seashells by the seashore

On a chilly March day, Sink Your Shucksvolunteers loaded sacks with empty oyster shellsand moved them out to the reefs in a supply linethat started on the pier.

PhotosbyallisonKniG

ht

24 | spg/smm 2012

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27/40Texas Shores |

In addition to the red tide, the 2011 drought hit oysterswith a one-two punch o two salinity-loving species: oysterdrills and dermo, neither o which harm humans but dokill the oysters.

Oyster drills arepredatory snails that,

as the name suggests,drill holes into oystershells to eed on them.

PWD had reports odrills on several oysterrees where they hadnot been observed inthe past.

We get infowinput rom the riversand it keeps the salinities moderated, so it keeps the drills

pushed back. We saw the opposite this past summer, withdrills pretty pervasive throughout the Galveston Baysystem, and coastwide as well they were everywhere,Robinson says.

Te other threat, dermo, is an oyster disease caused

by the single-celled parasite Perkinsus marinus (originally

called Dermocystidium marinum, hence the name). While

dermo is harmless to humans, it causes high mortality in

oysters, slowing growth rates, impairing unction o their

adductor muscles and inhibiting reproduction. Once an

oyster picks up a dermo inection, it usually has it until it

dies, although occasionally, with low enough temperatures

and salinities, the parasites dont multiply inside the oyster

and the hosts immune system can get rid o them.

Initially thought to be a ungus, dermo was discovered

in the late 1940s, and the rst paper was published on it

by J.G. Mackin, H. Malcolm Owen and Albert Collier

in 1950. Ray, who was working with Collier at the time,

developed a method or detecting dermo in the early

1950s that is still used today with little change.

He regularly tests oyster samples rom throughout

exas bays or the parasite and ound in 2011 that, like theoyster drills, dermo inection had spread to unprecedented

levels, including to areas he didnt think had high enough

salinities to even support oysters.

During this period, it is my belie that dermo

advanced urther up the bays than any time since weve

known about it, he says. I got samples showing oysters

inected with dermo in upper exas bays, in such areas as

the San Jacinto River and in the upper rinity Bay, at high

levels.

Ray says a little drought can be a good thing oroysters, depending on the timing, but denitely not atthe levels experienced during 2011. When there are highsalinities in late winter and early spring, the oysters havesucient salinity to develop their reproductive organsand they have a good set o spat in spring and summer.

However, with prolonged drought, which in last years casebegan in October 2010 and lasted or 18 months, youngoysters develop signicant levels o dermo even in theirrst year a very unusual occurrence.

I have no records o young oysters becoming inectedto the extent that the 2011 oyster recruits picked updermo, and its much aster than I had ever recordedbeore in the 60-some years Ive been working on oysters,he says. A lot o oysters o that bumper crop will be lostbecause o the warm season that we had.

Most o the drought now is broken in exas, but

weve had a very warm winter. Normally, with regard todermo, when we have a normal winter, the oyster getsrid o a lot o the parasites, but Im predicting the oystersdidnt get rid o much in the way o parasites, and latespring and early summer I am expecting a die-o.

Ray isnt hoping or just enough rain to end thedrought, hes hoping or a deluge.

25

People look at oods

as disasters, but in myopinion, i I could controlthings, Id have a good

ood every eight to 10years to clean out theparasites.

Dr. Sammy Ray

Dr. Sammy Ray, Professor Emeritus of Marine Biology at exas A&MUniversity.

Continued from page 23

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We need a good food, he says. Te food will kill oa lot o the oysters that are harboring dermo, and kill o alot o drills. I the salinities recover to at least 10 to 12 ppt,in most o our bays, well have a good set, and i we get agood set, the oysters will recover and well have market-size oysters in the next 18 to 24 months.

People look at foods as disasters, but in my opinion,i I could control things, Id have a good food every eightto 10 years to clean out the parasites. Steady state gets abuilding up o predators and parasites. We made a mistakeby letting people build homes in food plains, and now

we have to prevent foods, which keeps reshwater romgetting to our bays and estuaries.

With exas climate o cyclical drought and food, itsnot a question o whether Ray will get his wished-orfood, but how long hell have to wait. Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, the exas State Climatologist and Regents

Proessor in the Department o Atmospheric Sciencesat AMU, puts it this way: exas has a tendency to enddroughts with foods.

Enough Freshwater for theFuture?

At the height o the 2011 drought, the NationalIntegrated Drought Inormation Systems NationalDrought Monitor showed that none o the state was

ree rom drought and almost 88 percent o exas was inexceptional drought, the worst level. Tanks to the winter

and spring rains, by mid-April 2012, the percentage oexas that was back in the normal range had climbed to18 percent, and less than 10 percent o the state was inexceptional drought.

Trough May, however, even as the parts o the stateexperiencing the highest levels o drought continued to

shrink, other sections o exas that had been drought-ree appeared to be slipping back into abnormally dryconditions. By early June, less than three percent o thestate, most o it on the upper Gul coast around GalvestonBay, was normal while more than 65 percent was in atleast moderate drought, and another 32 percent was listedas abnormally dry. Is another summer o drought on the

way?In early May, NOAAs National Weather Service

Climate Prediction Center announced the end

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