Fish Kills Reported-(Updated)

The historic cold front that has invaded Texas has frozen much of the coastal marsh, backwaters and shallow portions of bays along the coast. The biggest concern for fisheries managers is fish kills and reports are coming in to Texas Fish & Game.

 

This morning I went out to Sabine Lake’s north end and documented areas frozen over with thick ice where I never saw anything like this living in the area my entire life. We have gotten reports from Capt. Jeff Neu out of Port Mansfield via Facebook sharing photos and video of dead snook and tarpon in that area. We are expecting more kills along the coast. We want to let people know what is happening on the coast and we need your help.

4:00 p.m. Update: Amanda Wood of Rockport reported a major kill of croaker, mullet, sheepshead and sand trout near Howard Munch Park. We have received reports of trout killed in Baffin Bay but no photos as of yet.

“The high mortality that a freeze can cause may deplete fish stocks for years,” said Robin Riechers, director of TPWD’s Coastal Fisheries Division. “Protection of the surviving fish during the few days when they are especially vulnerable to capture would likely shorten the time period for overall recovery of coastal species, especially spotted sea trout.”

Texas has about two million acres of bays and estuaries susceptible to freeze. There were three major freezes during the 1980s, including one in 1989 when the temperature at Brownsville dropped to 16 degrees and an estimated 11 million fish were killed in the freeze event. The last time there was a closure due to freezing temperatures was in January 2018. That freeze did not kill significant numbers of fish.

If you know of a fish kill, have photos or videos from Louisiana all the way down to the Mexico line please contact us at chester@chestermoore.com or text 409-920-2062. We are working hard to let people know what’s happening and are hoping the kills won’t be severe.

Chester Moore