Web island moon 8 29 2013 section a

Page 1

Inside the Moon...

TX Women Angler’s Tournament A2, A7

The Rooster Club A3

The

Island Moon

Farah’s Backwater A9

FREE PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY

Demolition Monday A11

Building a Farly Boat A14

Live music A18

Free

Weekly

361-949-7700 editor@islandmoon.com The Island Newspaper since 1996 Facebook : The Island Moon Newspaper

August 29, 2013

The only Island in Texas with more shrimp boats than pawn shops.

Around The Island

By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com The Labor Day Weekend is upon us and that means traffic. But alas, fellow Islanders, like a visit from relatives it will be over in three days. By Monday afternoon the traffic will be headed OTB, the Stripes shelves will be restocked with beverages and the sweet spot of the Island calendar will begin. The past couple of weekends have not been nearly as busy as those in July but this weekend is the Last Weekend at The Coast before the kids settle into the new school year in earnest. So take heart everybody and enjoy the company.

Johnny Depp

Photo By Dwight Jackson Next Publication Date: 9/6/2013

Boating Rules in Skinny Water Change September 1 New state law makes it illegal to uproot seagrass

Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper

Year 16, Issue 489

Work at Schlitterbahn Site Shifting Into High Gear Digging of canals well underway, more heavy equipment arriving

By Dale Rankin In its waning days the 83rd Texas Legislature passed a state law that makes it illegal to uproot seagrass with a motorboat propeller. A scoping hearing on a related law was held on The Island last year which would have made it illegal to damage seagrass with a propeller in a defined area around the JFK Causeway. But when the law cleared the legislature the controlled area was expanded to include the entire Texas coastline. House Bill 3279 establishes a statewide law that makes it illegal to uproot seagrass in all coastal waters. This is similar to an existing TPWD regulation in the Redfish Bay State Scientific Area near Rockport, where it is Class C misdemeanor to uproot seagrass with a motorboat outboard propeller. Boaters will be in violation if they uproot seagrass with a submerged propeller and can be fined up to $500, which is a class C misdemeanor.

Female hearts were aflutter last Saturday with reports that Tonto himself was in town. It all started when this photo of Johnny Depp with a Rockport fishing guile hit the social media. We were in Port Aransas when the news hit and within minutes the tattoos on the fellow in the picture were matched with those of the actor and women in Port Aransas started jamming the ferry line to get to Rockport. So far we haven’t talked to anyone who spoke to him but we do know he’s been hanging about in Austin quite a lot lately and shooting a film in New Mexico.

Drivers beware The PD has been working the JFK of late from Flour Bluff to Ennis Joslin; they set up radar on the inbound side in the morning and the outbound side in the afternoon (or is it the other way around?) So if you make the OTB commute for work be careful.

Island Mail Boxes Island mail boxes have been taking a beatin of late. Seems that some mail-box-haters have been going around knocking them off their perches. They haven’t been knocking dents in them like is the norm, but rather just knocking them off and leaving them on the ground. Gunny Mo was walking his dog Bianca on Caravelle last weekend where there had been some vandalism about 4 a.m. that morning; some mailboxes had been hit and a Skid-OCan had been overturned at a worksite – that’s never good for anybody, especially if there was somebody in it at the time. As he turned onto Whitecap right there in the middle of the street he found an I-phone with the last text sent out just after 4 a.m. Seems maybe the mailbox haters got a little careless. We’ve also had more reports of Yeti Coolers being swiped from fishing boats parked in front yards but that seems to have subsided a bit after our story last week. Nevertheless, they still may be coming to Getti your Yetti so watch out!

Speaking of fishing And speaking of fishing – see how we Moon Monkeys make those segues – fisherpersons hereabout report that fishing in the Upper Laguna – from the JFK to Bird Island – has been white hot of late. Some folks say it’s the best they have ever seen it. The reason is up for grabs; some say it’s the cooler water we’ve had since the Gulf turned over a few weeks ago, others say it’s all the nice clean water coming in through the Packery, Sandy Pete says he thinks it’s the price of gasoline – Pete likes conspiracies. But whatever the reason now’s the time to get out there and catch your limit. So there you go. Keep you icebox stocked for the Big Weekend, you speed under control, your mailbox safe, your Yetti hidden, your fishing pole handy, and your eye out for Captain Jack Sparrow. And say hello is you see us Around The Island.

Captain Marvin Tamez, Enforcement Supervisor with the Corpus Christi office of Texas Parks and Wildlife, said it will be up to the discretion of game wardens to decide on what constitutes a violation. “We’re looking for vessels running across seagreass beds and digging in, acts that go beyond just trying to get out.” Damage done while trolling or poling in seagrass is not actionable under the new law. “There are no specific depth barriers,” Tamez said. “We will be looking for boaters who are driving across grass beds and destroying grass.” For more information see the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

Last Public Hatchling Release for 2013 Held

This newly purchased machine digs the canals five cubic yards a scoop. More Schiltterbahn photos on A4 By Dale Rankin A look around the work site of the Schlitterbahn Beach Country Resort these days is an eyeopening experience. Since work began in earnest in early June crews have made great headway in the digging of what will eventually be 3600 linear feet of a canal system, and in the forming up of the footprint for the waterpark itself.

“Our goal, when we are done, is to have the most unique nine holes of golf in Texas.” Paul Schexnailder. Developer Paul Schexnailder who is supervising the site work, said this week the project is on schedule for the park’s opening next summer.

TAMUCC Islanders Girls Soccer Team Gets Airborn!

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

Burton Dunn and daughter Juliana on Padre Island

The Islanders girls soccer team from Texas A&M Corpus Christi played their first game ever last weekend in front of 1200 fans. But the night before the game they came to The Island for some fun. On Sunday August 25, we held our 25th public release of Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings at Padre Island National Seashore this year. More than 800 people attended to watch 49 Kemp’s ridley and 144 green turtles begin their journey of freedom. This was the last public hatchling release that we will hold this year. We schedule our public Turtles continued on A8

It’s Time to Get Out the Paddles!

Paddle for Parkinson’s is This Weekend This is the weekend and Billish Park is the place. The 2013 Paddle for Parkinson’s event is taking place this Saturday, August 31, Labor Day weekend at Billish Park. Last year Paddle for Parkinson’s raised over $15,000!! A huge thank you to everyone who helped with this great cause! Catch the Cure has contributed over $52,500 to Parkinson’s Disease research since 2007! Paddle continued on A3

A little Island history

Surviving the 1916 Storm on The Island The ranchers survived but the herd did not

Editor’s note: This is the story of Burton Dunn, Christopher “Spohn” MaGowan and Sisto Del Marez caught down Island in the 1916 Hurricane. This is from an interview with Spohn fifty years after the storm by Doris Miller. Story provided by Greg Smith.

Moving down Island

Yes the 1916 storm was awful but we didn’t know it was going to be that bad. My cousin Burton Dunn had come to the lower ranch where we were that The Green Hill Camp house, circa 1965 where day, me and another cowhand, The Green Hill Camp house, circa 1965 where the three fled to the three fled to the dunes from high water. It was Sisto Del Marez. We were all water. destroyed by Hurricane Beulah in 1967. Rear in the cook shack and the wind It was destroyed by Hurricane Beulah in 1967. Rear structure is structure is cookhouse. was blowing hard out of the the cookshack floor and that was three feet northeast. from the ground. When the wind turned due It was about the middle of the evening east, we knew we were in for it. I never saw and so dark we had the coal-oil lamp such rolls of water in my life. There were burning. The water was high, nearly up to History continued on A6


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.