Article by Davis Sikes as printed in the 6/26/03 edition of the Corpus Christi Caller Times

Redfish rescue effort hits a snag

Plan to move juveniles from tidal pools to open water halted by National Seashore official

June 26, 2003

Talk about your contrasting perspectives._This story began in 1999, when Hurricane Brett ripped through Padre Island, leveling sand dunes and temporarily leaving several narrow links from the gulf to Laguna Madre.

Nature eventually sealed these passes, the way she has for thousands of years. And stranded in these evaporating pools was a variety of marine life, the remains of which nourish the island in a time-tested process with divine design.

Then last fall during unusually high tides, seawater and aquatic life poured back into a few of those residual depressions in the sand. This time, hundreds of tiny redfish from the lagoon became trapped, along with trout, crabs, mullet and who knows what else.

Recently, the local folks who frequent the National Seashore discovered the abundance of 10- to 12-inch reds that have spent the bulk of their lives in these isolated tidal pools. Barring another cataclysmic weather event or the intervention of do-gooders, these coveted game fish soon will die in their shrinking puddles.

Sensing this, Billy Sandifer, Nick Meyer and other members of the local chapter of Shore Fishing & Casting Club International, planned a rescue effort to free the redfish. They enlisted the help of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Coastal Fisheries Department and others. Stan Willson, with the Saltwater-Fisheries Enhancement Association, agreed to supply oxygenated live wells to transport the fish to their new home. All was in place for the resource protection project.

As a courtesy, the folks at Padre Island National Seashore were notified. After all, seashore staff oversees the park and should be told.

This is where the contrasting perspective part of the story comes in.

Park Superintendent Jock Whitworth faces a dilemma of heart and a hard place. Management policy of the National Park Service generally prohibits interference with natural habitat, natural abundances, natural processes and natural distribution of native species.

Whitworth has some discretion regarding interpretation, but for the most part is charged with enforcing and upholding this rule. So despite his heart, Whitworth nixed the rescue operation until further review.

It would seem that a rule prohibiting removal of plants and animals does not apply, because rescuers would be placing fish back within the park, either into the gulf or lagoon. But that's my interpretation.

Whitworth has consulted with the National Park Service's program leader, who voiced concerns about potential ramifications of the rescue operation. He's looking for a precedent and is cautious not to set one. Meanwhile, Whitworth met with park staff to discuss interpretation and options. This concerns more than redfish. Park officials must examine the potential positive and negative effects of action and of non-action on all plants and animals at the park.

Quite a conundrum, huh?

On Wednesday, Whitworth is scheduled to meet with Sandifer, Meyer and SFCCI members to update them and receive their input.

The question on their minds is simple. What would it hurt to save a few hundred reds?

Whitworth also would like this meeting to strengthen the relationship between park users and park staff, so they might share information to better manage and preserve the park.

It is likely that Whitworth will bring to this meeting his preferred alternatives regarding the redfish puddles. But at this point, I don't know what those would be.

Sentiment among anglers remains toward rescue, as you might expect. Meyer and others said it's difficult to understand how the National Park Service could manipulate nature when it comes to sea turtles and dolphins, then adopt a hands-off policy with redfish.

Whitworth tells me that sea turtles and marine mammals hold the status of protected, threatened or endangered and redfish do not.

But still, the state spends hundreds of thousands of our dollars on a redfish-stocking program. Rescuing hundreds of juvenile redfish would be like releasing tens of thousands of fingerlings, because of the greater survival rate of larger fish. Also, the Coastal Conservation Association, the granddaddy of conservation/angling organizations, is rooted in saving redfish populations.

It would be a shame - not to mention wasteful - if a federal policy runs counter to these worthwhile efforts. A movement toward civil disobedience could be brewing.

Whitworth noted that endangered brown pelicans have been seen feeding and/or mulling around the tidal pools, raising the issue of interference even higher. The birds probably are eating mullet. They can have all the mullet they want.

Historically, there is at least one occasion when redfish were rescued from waters along Padre Island. This occurred at Nine-Mile Hole, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cut channels to provide escape routes for fish that annually would become trapped in what once was called the Graveyard, a secondary bay southeast of Baffin Bay.

But this effort, in part, was a matter of the Corps of Engineers righting a manmade wrong. A spoil bank created by the Corps of Engineers in the late 1940s along the Intracoastal Waterway had exacerbated an existing problem. For years, fish would die in summer when low tides and evaporation turned the Graveyard into a crackled dust flat.

You might wonder about the reaction of National Park Service officials to the escape channels, which were cut in the early 1970s. Who knows if they were consulted? The National Seashore was established until 1962.

Meanwhile, time is running out. Meyer said the water level at the biggest pool diminished some 10 inches in the past two weeks. The pool is about 300 yards long, 50 yards wide and shrinking quickly.

Outdoors writer David Sikes' column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 886-3616 or sikesd@caller.com