Inside the Moon...
Canal Crawl A7
Waves of Impact A2
FREE
The
Island Moon
Travelling Moon A9
Free
Live Music A16
Angler’s Alley A11
The Island Newspaper since 1996 Island Area News ● Events ● Entertainment
October 18, 2012
The Island where fun is like life insurance: the older you get, the more it costs.
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
This week an Australian Daredevil named Felix Baumgartner jumped from a helium balloon at 128,100 feet and fell for almost four minutes reaching a speed of Mach 1.24, or 833 mph, before landing in the New Mexico desert near (fittingly) Roswell. He said he didn’t feel anything when he broke the sound barrier and was most worried about going into a flat spin and the blood leaving the center of his body and blowing out through his eyes. That would certainly take most of the fun out of a freefall.
By Dale Rankin
Work at Port Aransas Marine Science Center Drives Mariculture Around the Globe
When you first look at the Fisheries and Mariculture Laboratory at the University of Texas Science Center in Port Aransas it looks pretty much like any other building on any campus in America. But when you enter one of the cluster of low slung structures that are squatted down right next to the ship channel near Charlie’s Pasture what you find is anything but routine.
far-flung research that has spread around the world and placed the lab at the forefront of the mariculture industry. The question was; can Red Drum spawn in captivity? The answer was yes and the institution was born and now four decades later has branched out to include Flounder, Pompano and Ling (Cobia to some,
Back in the late 1970s a far-thinking scientist named Dr. Connie Arnold ask a simple whatif question that has spawned (pun intended)
Cobia/ Ling in the tank at the hatchery keep the water temperature that of their native habitat they think its time to get busy.
The Flounder are kept in a shallow, rectangular breeding tank Ling to the rest of us). Out in Elk Grove California a man trying to slaughter a pig accidentally shot his brother in the face during a family cookout; both brother and pig survived. Meanwhile up in our nation’s capitol plans are underway for a Million Muppet March on November 3. Just the thought of that is scary.
Muppet anarchy Here on The Island our concerns have been of a more mundane nature. The only people jumping out of perfectly good airplanes are doing it at much lower altitudes at the Port A airport, no pigs or their owners have been wounded (that we’ve heard of), and by all accounts our Muppet population is not bent on anarchy. The Winter Texans have already begun to arrive. You can’t miss them coming in over the JFK in their RVs hauling a vehicle along behind and taking in the sights as they head down SPID and/or Highway 361 at a leisurely 40 miles per hour reveling in their good fortune and thinking of their friends shivering in the blue north. A good group of them turned out for the Belt Sander Races last Saturday at The Gaff, the eight-liner machines Around The Island are whirling like quarter-fed dervishes, and the half-life of a dollar beer has dropped to less than a half hour.
La Posada additions You will notice a story on this page about a couple of additions to the La Posada Lighted Boat Parade events. The Padre Island Yacht Club last year added a kickoff party for the parade which was a big success and raised enough money to pay for the trophies for the parade winners and buy some additional toys for kids in the bargain. This year organizers are working to add a street parade to the event. Both promise to make a great event even better.
Art Walk Speaking of Island events don’t forget the 3rd Annual Island Art Walk on Sunday, November 4 over at Billish Park. We have a lot of talented artists here on our Island and this is the time when they get to show off. For more information see the story in this issue. That’s all for now but we leave you with this thought; it now costs the U.S. Treasury Department two cents to make a penny. We’re not exactly sure what that means for the cost of tea in China but something about it just doesn’t seem right. Where does the other cent go? Maybe you can explain it if you see us Around The Island.
Island Art Walk Set for November 4 The 3rd Annual Padre Island Art Walk is on for Sunday, November 4, from noon until 4 p.m at Billish Park. The event is free and is designed to improve all aspects of the local Island Art WalkArt SetCommunity. for November 4
Year 15, Issue 445
Next Publication Date: 10/25/2012
The mother of all redfish- The reds are spawning now at the hatchery
Coyote Alert! Tuesday evening about 8:30 10 Year-Old Fisher was walking her one eyed pug dog Bevo in Doudin Park when two coyotes started following her and BEVO. Not only were they not afraid of her they came toward her. She ran to her house on Carlos Fifth where her mother Heidi Wilson was in the garage. Heidi says that Fisher was hyperventilating and yelled COYOTES BEVO and Heidi pulled them both into garage and quickly pulled the door down. This isn’t the family’s first time to encounter coyotes near their home. Recently four neighborhood children kayaked across to the spoil island behind their house on Carlos Fifth to catch bait fish and were approached by what they said was a huge coyote that wasn’t scared of them. Heidi says there are many small animals from the neighborhood that have gone missing and now wants to know if she needs to walk her dog with a pistol.
Street Parade and Kickoff Party Added to La Posada Events The Padre Island Yacht Club has announced the formation of the first ever street parade as part of the La Posada Lighted Boat Parade schedule. The street parade will be on Sunday, December 1 and everyone is eligible to take part. No time has been set. Then on Tuesday, December 4, the Yacht Club will sponsor a kickoff party for the Lighted Boat Parade at Scuttlebutte’s Restaurant starting at 3 p.m. with live music. For information on either event contact Vic at 214 668-6263. La Posada Continued on A7
City Moving Forward on Second Waterline to The Island The Corpus Christi City Council next week is expected to approve $70,000 for a geotechnical study of a second waterline from Flour Bluff to The Island.
Since development began on The Island the sole source of drinking water has been a 14-inch The 3rd Annual Padre Island Walk is on for Sunday, November 4, from noon 4 p.m at line Billish which runs parallel to the JFK Causeway Any Artist or ArtCraftsmen who would likeuntilto Park. The event is free and is designed to improve all aspects of the local Art Community. participate at no charge please call JoAnn Smith and also supplies the majority of water for the Any Artist or Craftsmen who would like to participate at no charge please call JoAnn Smith for more City for more information 949-7114 or 815-7431. information at 949-7114 or 815-7431. Theat Rotary Club of Padre Island is holding a Rubber Duck Race atof Port Aransas. the boat ramp starting at 2 p.m. Duck tickets – that’s right Duck Tickets – are available from any Rotary The Rotary Club of Padre Island is holding a Club member. City engineers are currently moving to begin Rubber Duck Race at the boat ramp starting at work on a new 18-inche line that would run 2 p.m. Duck tickets – that’s right Duck Tickets – are available from any Rotary Club member. Water Continued on A14
The idea is brilliant in its simplicity. If you know the time of year the fish spawn and you simulate the light/dark and water conditions of that time of year the fish will spawn year round. Red Drum spawn in the autumn so give them 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness and
Tanks in the facility are full of adult fish and the eggs are harvested for study or to pass along to the state hatcheries which take cutting edge research from the work done here and use it to supply about 15% of the year-old fish that make up the general population of Red Drum along coastal waters. Three out of every four Red Drum bought at H.E.B. are the result of the center’s research which has found practical application in China as well as other places around the country and the world. The water for the dozens of tanks scattered throughout the buildings comes directly from Mariculture Continued on A5
Training To Help Find 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
need lots of help finding these turtles during a cold stunning event. Below, I will tell you how you can help with our efforts to find and rescue cold stunned turtles.
The weather is beautiful now and it still feels like summer. However, it is October and cold The green turtle was once so abundant in Texas weather could begin in a few weeks. Many of that a turtle fishing and processing industry us will welcome cooler temperatures, but if it existed here. The population plummeted gets too cold it could be very during the late 1800s due to harmful to green sea turtles. overharvest and severe freezes. Sea turtles are reptiles and The green turtle has been listed cannot control their body as a Threatened Species in Texas temperature. Severe cold since the late-1970s. After years fronts affect the south Texas of conservation, the population coast every few years. Bay and has increased. South Texas waters pass waters can cool quickly provide important developmental and green turtles living there habitat for juvenile green turtles, can become “cold stunned”. and their numbers are rising During cold stunning, the rapidly here. Since 2009, the most turtles become immobilized common sea turtle species found and float to the surface. They washed ashore on the Texas coast can be blown ashore by the has been the green turtle. prevailing winds, and if they are not found and rescued, As during the 1800s, green turtles these gentle turtles can die due Cynthia Rubio with cold are still periodically impacted by to predation or exposure to the “cold stunning”. Cold stunning stunned green turtles elements. Our bays and passes rescued from the Laguna is the most significant source of are vast and green turtles are mortality in the population today, Madre during widely distributed there, so we February 2011.
Turtles Continued on A4
A little Island History
Island of Reprieve Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of stories taken verbatim from the memoirs of Islander Louis Rawalt who moved to The Island with his wife Viola in 1925 after being given only six months to live by doctors due to injuries from a mustard gas attack in World War I. In the last story he had already outlived the doctor’s estimate by over six months. He and his wife Viola originally built a cabin near what is now Packery Channel. By Louis Rawalt We moved our camp to the edge of Big Shell the next year, (1926) thirty-five miles down the beach. This time we had a shack to live in. A place loaned to us by Major Swan, one of the old timers on The Island. I bought a surf net and used a Model-A to replace the rusteaten Model-T. We converted the Ford into a pickup. Viola helped me with the net until I found a fishing partner. One morning when we were hauling in the net, something kept leaping against it with the force of a huge shark or a porpoise. We couldn’t bring it in, so I staked one end of the net into the sand, and hooked onto the other end with the car. Slowly, I pulled in the net until the creature lay in the edge of the surf. Incredible! It was an eighteen-foot sawfish. When some fishermen came by later that day and found me beside the sawfish with a cane pole – no
net in sight – they assumed I had caught it on the pole. I didn’t enlighten them, and this tall fish story was told about Corpus Christi for years. The sawfish, I regret to say, became food for the packs of coyotes that roamed the wild stretches of Big Shell. We seldom saw other human beings there, but coyotes growled close to our shack at night, and in the early mornings and evenings we saw them on the beach searching for fish which were the mainstay of their diet. I learned by experience just how clever and crafty they were. I have seen them fishing in the surf for mullet and catching them! Many times I saw these lean, hungry, animals History Continued on A6