TEXAS COASTAL PROTECTION - 2005

21 January 2005
Texas State Marine Education Center
Palacios, Texas

Pam Baker, a fisheries biologist, runs the Environmental Defense (ED) coastal program, begun in 1996. She looks for positive relationships and partnerships that can further conservation. The ED program was successful in taking this route to reform Texas shrimp farms, where pollution discharges and virus releases have been largely eliminated, and production has been increased. The program is also seeking to educate consumers and Ms. Baker distributed some sample seafood buying guides. These buying guides, part of the Oceans Alive project at ED, urge shoppers to avoid such threatened species as grouper, marlin, orange roughy, rockfish, shark, swordfish, tilefish and bluefin tuna.

Most of ED’s current focus is now on reforming fishery management in the Gulf of Mexico. As Ms. Baker sees it, the central problem is an example of Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”: that noone owns the resource, so noone has an incentive to preserve it for the future. As a result, there is a race by too many boats, with too much gear, to capture as many fish as possible today, without consideration for the long-term consequences. Ironically, some of the problems are actually made worse by the regulations meant to protect the fishery. For instance, the rules that limit fish size, season length and the number of trips per season fuel a race where more and bigger boats spend as much time on the water as possible, without regard to dangerous weather, high bycatches, gluts at dockside and price crashes in the market.

Environmental Defense is promoting two main solutions: Individual Tradeable Fishing Quotas (ITFQs) and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The Quotas assign a future share of the agreed-on, sustainable fishery production to each fisherman, based on his or her percentage of the historic catch. Once they are awarded these Quotas, the fishermen may buy, sell, or trade these Quotas, allowing the fishing fleet to shrink to an efficient size, in synch with the supply of fish. Studies indicate that these Quotas will allow a 50% rise in the price of the catch that fishermen receive, while allowing a 75% drop in their fishing costs, due to fewer trips, fewer empty holds, and less bycatch.

The Marine Protected Areas block fishing in nursery areas of young schools or hot-spots of highly diverse or rare populations. These Areas exist in 44 different locations, including Alaska, California, South Carolina, Florida, and Texas. The Texas site has protected the Kemp Ridley nesting area on Padre Island National Seashore, allowing the Turtles’ populations to rebound without threat from shrimping seines.

Environmental Defense is now focusing these tools on reviving a sustainable shrimp industry. It is a large industry: with 15,000 boats, 100,000 employed, and a $300 million dollar annual revenue stream. While shrimp populations are largely healthy, there are significant signs of strain. Bycatch amounts to 280,000,000 pounds of bycatch, including jellyfish, lobster, turtles, squid, snapper, and shark, discarded. Also, the shrimp yield has dropped: it now requires 81% more effort in man-days fished to catch a pound of shrimp than it did in the 1960s. With boat fuel prices high, wild shrimp prices low and undercut by farmed shrimp, many fishing families and communities are facing bankruptcy.

Ms. Baker is organizing a March 2005 meeting among Texas shrimp academics, environmentalists, government figures and industry representatives to discuss the various options to restore the shrimp fishery. Introducing Quotas and Protected Areas will be proposed as key pilot projects, but she said that there would also be efforts to improve marketing for wild shrimp (modeled off a Turtle-Safe label for Louisiana shrimpers), to coordinate conservation work with Tamaulipan shrimpers, to locate and protect Gulf bycatch hotspots, and to build an ongoing leadership program and forum. She admitted that some of these efforts may suffer from two distractions: the old animosity between environmentalists and shrimpers over Turtle Excluder Devices, and trade groups’ focus on raising anti-dumping tariffs on imported shrimp.

Pam Baker concluded by noting that her fishery colleague at Environmental Defense, Pete Emerson, would be retiring in February 2005, although he would phase out his work gradually.

Questions and Answers

Q: What is the current bycatch ratio was and how has it changed over time? Ms. Baker said that about 1 pound of shrimp had been caught for every 10 pounds of bycatch in past years, but now the ratio was 1 pound of shrimp for every 4 pounds of bycatch: better but still high.

TEXAS COASTAL PROTECTION - 1999

Friday, September 17, 1999
Houston Endowment
600 Travis, Suite 6400
Houston, Texas 77002

Jim Blackburn, a noted environmental professor, scientist and lawyer in the Houston area, gave a presentation on the value of and threats to the Texas coast. His slide presentation was related to a proposed book, The Book of Texas Bays, that he is producing with the writing help of Michael Berryhill and the photographic support of Jim Olive.

The book is intended to give a sense of place, in laymen’s terms, to those who in live in or are interested in the Texas coast. The book will describe the full range of coastal ecology, ranging from the nearly freshwater Sabine Lake to the hypersaline Laguna Madre. It will also cover the full variety of uses of the coast, from petrochemical cracking to fishing, snail collecting, crabbing, birdwatching, sailing, and others. As well, the book will discuss some of the threats to the coast, including hurricanes, dams, oilspills, coastal development and other natural and man-made problems. He emphasized that the Texas coast is a biologically rich area that we should value and protect.

Questions and Answers

Q: What can we learn about the issue of oil spill recovery and cleanup? Mr. Blackburn noted that the book could include interviews with oil spill technicians or regulators.

Q: What is the current condition of the Wallisville Saltwater Barrier? Has the Army Corps of Engineers punctured the levee there to improve circulation? Mr. Blackburn was unsure.

Q: What is the fate of Cuero Dam? Mr. Blackburn noted that Cuero, a mainstem dam, and Sandy’s, a tributary dam, were both under consideration and could harm San Antonio Bay. Danielle Milam added that Cibolo reservoir was quite likely, but that river diversions to underground storage in the Carrizo aquifer could also harm the Bay.

Q: What is the impact of shrimp farms on the coast? Jim Blackburn answered that there were serious problems from waste discharges, exotic shrimp releases, and nonnative virus infections, but felt that the state’s regulatory efforts were improving.

Q: How would the proposed Bayport container facility on Galveston Bay affect the area? Mr. Blackburn said that the 700-1000 acre facility would bring 7,000 trucks and eight 8,000-foot trains daily, along with associated nitrogen oxide emissions to the area, dramatically disrupting the residential area, and perhaps requiring a major 50-foot deep channel to serve it.

Karen Olson discussed the effect of the Lower Rio Grande dam proposed for Brownsville, and described the results of a recent USGS study on water quality in the lower Rio Grande, which appeared to be relatively clean of maquiladora toxics but containing agricultural pesticides and domestic sewage. Mr. Blackburn noted rumors that maquiladora discharges went to channels that let into the Mexican portion of the Laguna Madre, skirting the Rio Grande.