February’s brutally cold weather conditions across the Lone Star State were detrimental for many notable reasons, including for our outstanding saltwater fishery that stretches from the Mexican border to the Louisiana border.
For the past few weeks, Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists assessed fish kills across multiple bay systems on the coast, hoping to nail down just how bad the estimate will be. For context, in Corpus Christi where I live, the wind chills dipped into the single digits for multiple days as a result of the historic storm that settled over the entire state. We actually recorded two days of low temperatures that hadn’t been observed since the late 1890s, while farther to the north it was even colder.
As a result of those consistent temperatures, the overall fish kill is shaping up to be simply monumental at current count, according to TPWD fisheries officials.
If saltwater species — including speckled trout, redfish and black drum — don’t make it to a refuge in deeper, more temperature-stable water during cold weather, they may die when water temperatures reach a certain threshold, officials noted.
Overall, an estimated minimum of 3.8 million fish were killed on the coast, TPWD said, including at least 61 different species — most notably not game fish.
Here are excerpts from TPWD’s initial report on the fish kill:
“Non-recreational species contributed to 91% of the total mortality in numbers of fish. This includes species like silver perch, hardhead catfish, pinfish, bay anchovy and striped mullet. While not sought after by most anglers, non-game fish are ecologically important, providing food for larger game fish as well as adding to the overall diversity of Texas bays. Recreationally important game species accounted for the other 9% of the total. Of that 9%, the dominant species included spotted seatrout (48%), black drum (31%), sheepshead (8%), sand seatrout (7%), red drum (3%), gray snapper (2%) and red snapper (<1%).
“Both the Upper and Lower Laguna Madre bay systems were hit particularly hard by this event. The Lower Laguna Madre had the highest mortality of spotted seatrout with an estimated 104,000 fish killed. That comprised 65% of the total estimated Spotted seatrout killed and when combined with the Upper Laguna Madre, it comprised 89% of the total estimated spotted seatrout mortality along the Texas coast. Similarly, the Upper Laguna Madre had experienced black drum mortality at an estimated 82,600 fish and comprised 78% of the coastwide black drum killed.
“This is not the first freeze to occur in Texas coastal waters. Multiple freeze events during the 1980s killed almost 32 million fish, with the most severe impacts being on the lower coast. While the February 2021 event impacted a large area of the Texas coast, the overall number of fish killed in this event appears to be lower than any of the three freeze events in the 1980s.
“Using history as a guide, we believe our fishery has the potential to bounce back fairly quickly as it did after the 1980s freeze event. Based on our long-term monitoring, we saw the recovery in terms of numbers of spotted seatrout bounce back in approximately two to three years. This does not mean the fish size and age structure were the same as pre-freeze but the overall numbers did return in that timeframe,” said Robin Riechers, Coastal Fisheries Division Director at TPWD.”
Here is a breakdown of each event in the 1980s:
- December 1983: 14.4 million fish killed with a geographic extent of the entire coast
- February 1989: 11.3 million fish killed with a geographic extent of East Matagorda Bay south to the Lower Laguna Madre
- December 1989: 6.2 million fish killed with a geographic extent of the entire coast
Carter Smith, Executive Director of TPWD, noted that anglers — specifically those targeting speckled trout, which has a five-fish daily bag limit coastwide — can be good stewards of the natural resource in a number of ways.
“While some areas of the coast and some species of fish were clearly impacted more than others, overall this is the worst freeze related coastal fish kill we have experienced since the 1980s. There are some important lessons from those historical events that we need to draw upon as we work to accelerate the recovery of our fish stocks, particularly speckled trout along the mid and lower coast,” Smith said. “The most obvious, and immediate one for speckled trout is conservation, a practice where every Texas coastal angler can make a contribution right now. Practicing catch and release and/or keeping fewer fish to take home in areas like the Laguna Madre will only give us that many more fish to rebuild from as we augment populations through our hatchery efforts, and we carefully evaluate what regulation changes may be needed to foster a quicker recovery for our bays.”
Assessments for large geographic fish kills occur using a phased approach, TPWD noted. The first phase is determining the geographic extent and distribution of fish. This is achieved through observations from staff, state and local partners as well as the public. Rapid assessments to determine the rough estimates of the number of fish killed as well as species impacted are completed.
TPWD coastal teams then are assigned sampling areas, and staff count, measure and record each individual fish present in an area, officials noted. By following American Fisheries Society guidelines for sampling in this manner, a summary can then be completed for each bay system along with a coastwide assessment. While assessment methods have evolved slightly over time due to better technology and resources, general methodology for how TPWD assesses fish kills is comparable over the decades.
The Coastal Fisheries Division’s long-term routine monitoring programs (e.g. gill nets, bay trawls and bag seines) allow for analysis of this freeze event by comparing it to past events, even before additional routine sampling is conducted, TPWD officials said. Additionally, as a part of year-round survey efforts, biologists are collecting information from recreational anglers to provide additional information regarding the impacts of this cold-weather event on angler catch rates of game fish. TPWD will also be evaluating an increase in spotted seatrout production at its coastal fish hatcheries to aid the recovery efforts, officials noted.
