Coastal Brigade

I WOULD JUST really like to say thank you for helping me be able to go to such a wonderful camp this year at Coastal Brigades in Galveston.

We are only two days in and I am having such an amazing time. This for sure an unforgettable time. And we also are meeting really amazing people along the way. Today we went out with some biologist and volunteers and I learned so much about oysters and how we can help out with making the fishery better.

I also could see a future to wetland biology and this Coastal Brigade really opened my eye to what my future will look like. Without your guys support I don’t think I would be having another chance at a amazing experience like this.

Wildlife biology is the field I would really enjoy going into when I’m older and this camp has truly helped me get a better understanding of what I would  love to do when I’m older.

In this week my passion for the fishery and wildlife has only gotten better. And I have started to understand more and more about the outdoors.

Thank you for supporting my passion and my future.

Zaden Pharis
5th Battalion Coastal Brigade Cadet

Editor: It was great meeting you at Coastal Brigades. It was a pleasure speaking for your group this year and Texas Fish & Game was glad to supply you with my books and copies of the magazine.

Snake Encounters

IN RESPONSE to your internet article on sea snakes, I had a terrifying experience at the public beach in Santa Marta, Colombia sometime in the mid 70’s.

I had been standing in crystal clear water up to my waist for several minutes and had probably moved very little or not at all. I was facing the shore and my feet were slightly separated. For some reason I looked down and saw what I thought to be a long black and white banded piece of rope or cable hanging between my legs, which I figured must have somehow gotten stuck to the back of my swimming trunks, but when I twisted around enough to look down at my butt, I saw a head and two eyes looking up at me.

I panicked and started thrashing wildly, not knowing what it was and expecting a painful bite at any moment, but a few seconds later, to my immense relief, it was gone. It was only many years later, when I was looking at photos of sea snakes on the web that I came to know who my uninvited guest had been.

Sherman Marcus

Editor: Sea snakes are known for being pretty docile but their venom is so hyper toxic you have to be really careful. Part of me is jealous you got to encounter a sea snake and the other part is glad I didn’t have an encounter quite like that.

I WAS READING your article at fishgame.com. Partway down you mentioned the rare Gulf salt marsh snake.  I found one of these in my back yard about six years ago.  I was mowing my backyard, when a small snake popped up behind my mower.  It was about 12 inches long.  My first thought was, “Holy smoke!  I just killed a snake.”  I reached down and grabbed it before it could wriggle down into the grass.  Amazingly, it was unhurt, not a scratch, and I easily kept hold of it, even though most snakes immediately try to get loose.

At first I thought it was some kind of color variation of a garter snake.  I consulted some of the books I have on snakes, and discovered to my surprise that it was a Gulf salt marsh snake, and at least 40 miles outside of its normal range.  My house is about a mile and a half southeast of the race track, and West Road and Hollister is the closest major intersection to my house.  The nearest ditch with substantial water (a small rivulet) is about a quarter mile west of my address.  Needless to say, there is no salt water or marshes around where I live.  This seems to indicate to me that the range of this snake might be greater than supposed, and that it might sometimes live fairly far from water.  I might add that there had been no tropical storms in the area recently at the time to drive the snake from its normal habitat.

After determining what the snake was, I released it in my backyard.  The only other snakes I’ve seen on my property in 21 years were several earth snakes in the front flower bed.

I might mention that up on a disc golf course in The Woodlands, I came upon a coral snake that was missing the red coloration, and was totally black with yellow rings.  I didn’t learn until about 10 years ago that it had been a local color variation of the coral snake.  For about 10 years I wondered about its identity.

David N. Currey

Editor: David, that’s a very interesting story. For starters, I would love to see a coral snake like that. And secondly, I don’t hear about a lot of meetings with the Gulf salt marsh snake especially in someone’s backyard. Thanks for letting us know.

 

Email your comments to: editor@fishgame.com

 

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