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Section B
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Island Moon The Island Newspaper Island Area News ● Events ● Entertainment
October 21, 2011 Photo by Miles Merwin
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On The Hook
Dunk Your Junk Saturday, Oct. 22, is the annual Dunk Your Junk Day in Port Aransas. From 9am to noon, residents may bring junk for disposal at the City of Port Aransas transfer station at the end of Ross Avenue.
By Captain Arthur Helmsteadt and his dog Fred
The journey ends when you leave the dock Let me start by saying I love sailing. Sarah and I have been sailing for a long time. While on vacation, we’re either fishing, diving, or sailing. Sometimes all three. Sailing is a skill and an art form that is easy to do but extremely hard to master. It appeals to each person for slightly different reasons. Many folks are drawn to sailing by the romance of it all. Others love the economics of traveling across great distances without burning expensive fossil fuels. Harnessing the power of the wind and water to use at one’s leisure is an exciting idea. Here is the problem though; you’d better be a dang good power boater before you become a sailor. Why? Because sailboats are basically complicated powerboats. When you want to turn left in a powerboat, you turn left. If you want to turn left in a sailboat you tack….or jibe, depending how the vessel is oriented to the wind. These maneuvers require careful timing and coordination by one or more members of the vessels crew. Toss in 25kt winds and rough water and things get sporty.
Port A Happenings
Nautical Encounters One of the biggest reasons I love my work is I never know what’s coming next. It’s all the excitement of being a cop minus the criminals and possibility of getting shot at (most of the time). Every call is different and presents its own set of challenges. Some situations, like moving a big sport fish, or salvaging a sunken boat can be technically challenging. Other calls, like those in foul weather can be physically or mentally taxing. My least favorite calls to run are those involving blow boats (sailboats for those less savvy).
Check the weather I’m sure I’ll catch plenty of heat for my next statement but here goes. Many so-called sailors have no business being anywhere near the water. Many people love the idea of owning and skippering a sailboat but don’t have a clue what they’re in for. A call I ran yesterday was a prime example of this. I wound up pulling a gentleman in from CC bay in his 31’ Hunter sailboat. This was the second time in the past month I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him. Both times were under similar circumstances. Both times we were under a small craft advisory. This basically meant CC bay was an angry place. It’s nothing for the bay to reach 5ft at 3 seconds when the wind starts blowing. This time around, he was moving from CC harbor to Bahia Marina in Ingleside. He tried to sail but it was physically too challenging for him. He tried to motor his way there but the engine soon overheated for an unknown reason. He dropped his anchor and payed out almost 200’ of rode but the anchor was still dragging. When I got to him, he was seasick, scared, and fearful of his vessel’s wellbeing. After a not-so-graceful ballet of sailboat and tow boat my crew Zack, was able to get aboard the Hunter and secure a towline to the bow. He slowly pulled in the anchor rode while I did my best to tow the boat in the direction of the anchor line. Finally the Hunter’s hook was stowed and we started the slow trek back to Bahia Marina. At 5.5kts it was a slow rough run. We finally delivered the estranged vessel with its owner to Bahia well after dark. The inside of the boat looked a bomb exploded in it. The skipper looked like he’d been beaten.
Clean up, clear out, spruce up your yards and homes. This joint project with Keep Port Aransas Beautiful (KPAB), City of Port Aransas and Allied Waste is held twice a year. The October event is in conjunction with Make A Difference Day. The April one commemorates Earth Day. No Commercial stuff, tires, chemicals, paint, accepted. All freon based appliances must have the gas recovered before the transfer station will accept them. Also absolutely NO SHEET ROCK DRYWALL, and NO ROOFING SHINGLES will be accepted. KPAB is a non-profit organization, whose mission is to promote public interest to create a cleaner, more beautiful Port Aransas through volunteerism and education. The organization focuses on litter reduction, beautification and community improvement, to reduce/reuse/ recycle/rebuy and provides environmental education. Beach Walk October is the perfect time of Port A Cont. on B 6
On the Hook Cont. on B 4
Training To Locate Cold Stunned Green Sea Turtles By Donna J. Shaver, Ph.D. Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery National Park Service Padre Island National Seashore e-mail: Donna_Shaver@nps.gov
A cold green sea turtle may need your help this winter. The weather is beautiful now, but it will start getting cold in upcoming weeks. Severe cold fronts affect the south Texas coast every few years and can be very harmful to green turtles. Below, I will tell you how you can aid with their rescue. The green turtle was once so abundant in Texas that a turtle fishing and processing industry existed here. The population plummeted during the late1800s due to overharvest and severe freezes. The green turtle has been listed as a Threatened Species in Texas since the late-1970s. After years of conservation, the population has increased. Since 2009, the most common sea turtle species found washed ashore on the Texas coast has been the green turtle, and record numbers have been found stranded during the last two years. As during the 1800s, green turtles are still periodically impacted by “cold stunning”. Cold stunning occurs when severe cold fronts pass through the area and drastically drop water temperatures. At water temperatures below about 50 degrees the turtles can become immobilized and float to the surface or wash ashore. If they are not located and protected quickly they typically succumb. Cold
Rescue and recovery of stranded green turtles by Padre Island National Seashore staff and volunteers during the February 2011 cold stunning event.
stunning is the most significant source of mortality in the population today, but we can reduce the number of green turtles that are killed by searching for them during these cold weather events. The population is still depleted compared to former levels and legally protected, so we are required to undertake activities to try to aid them. And from a humanitarian standpoint, the cold stunned animals are unable to warm themselves or protect themselves against predator attacks, so people want to help them. The magnitude of the challenge can be daunting. The potential search area is large and many turtles can be found over a period of days or weeks. About 1,600 stranded green turtles were found “cold stunned” during early-February 2011, in the largest cold stunning event recorded since the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network was established in 1980. The second largest event was during January 2010, when about 450 cold stunned turtles were found. Most of cold stunned turtles are found on middle and south Texas bay and pass shorelines. From 10:00 am to noon on Saturday December 3, we will hold a training session to inform peoTurtles Continued on B 6
Next Publication Date: 11/04/2011
Year 15, Issue 399
Parade in Port A
On the Rocks Dove Season
By Jay Gardener some very worthy local causes. Great job folks.
Well, Sharkathon went off without a hitch. Heck, it basically went off without a fish, at least for Roadkill Willie and I, LOL. We beat the water to a bloody froth for two and a half days with little to nothing to show for it. But as Tyler says, “it’s all about the fellowship.” Congrats (again) to Curtis, Skipjack, Mickey, Todd, onelegged Mike, Kerrianne, Sarah, Russell and the long list of volunteers that put on this successful tournament every year. I’ll have another piece down the road when Sharkathon organizers donate all the proceeds to
Babes on Baffin Babes on Baffin also was a smash hit. Candace and her crew did a bang-up job organizing and running this very successful tournament. The Grand Slam winners were the Treble Hookers (they also won their division, Non-guided any bait). Other winning teams were The Bay Hookers, Ashore Bet, and Mickeys’ Hookers (the ladies have some interesting team names). Also placing in their divisions were Reel Hookers I, Finders Keepers, Team Ace Primary Home Care, Reelin Rookies, Reel Screamers I, Murry/Cone, and the Purdy Girls. Thanks to Garza Taxidermy, Total Oilfield, Premier Yama-
ha, and especially the original organizer of this event, John. My salute to you, sir, and to the rest of the organizers and winners of this great event. The live weigh-in produced 72 vigorous redfish, trout, and drum that are now swimming in the Kidfish tanks at the Hatchery waiting for the kids to show up Saturday morning. We will see you next year Columbus Day weekend for another Babes on Baffin Ladies Fishing Tournament (photo courtesy of Tyler Thorsen).
Red Tide risin’ Well, the Big Story, unfortunately is the Red Tide again this year. I was looking through my old articles from years past and was about to cut and paste my same old explanation of why it goes off when I remembered getting a link to an article back in June of this year. Here’s my excerpt of articles past; Step two has some to do with the drought and low inflows of fresh water. Actually that little bit of rain we had almost a month ago was probably one of the triggers. Just a little rain and couple that with high tides in the fall. Enough to wash some nutrients out of the sand and out of the bay, and voila, Karenia brevis (red tide) has the perfect conditions to mass produce and take over the water column. Bad juju. Thankfully the water conditions are different in the bays than the beach, and the changes in gradient from salinities and temperatures is obviously enough to change the conditions to less than optimal for the red tide, hence stopping its almost electro-chemical chain reaction of lysis and releasing of the aerosol. Well, I was pretty close except for that last part. Researchers from Texas A&M-College Station did some experiments and got a lot closer to the answer. I was partially correct with many of the precursors however I didn’t look closely enough at my theory. What has been bugging me about this most recent event was that we have had a north-to-south current for the
On the Rocks Continued on B2