KFDM COOP Posted April 9, 2006 Report Posted April 9, 2006 Texas gets first-ever flounder stocking ROCKPORT - The flounder population in the Aransas Bay complex has increased by about 1,500 specimens. That is because Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials stocked them into the waters near Rockport Beach Park last Tuesday. These captive raised flounder only range from 40mm to 101mm in length but for some anglers they represent big hope for recovery of the highly pressured species. “To see a stocking of flounder of any size in any bay in Texas is a truly big thing. Hopefully we will see a full-blown stocking program in the future because as just about everyone who fishes for them knows, flounder face the biggest problems of the ‘Big Three' inland species, which includes speckled trout and redfish,†said veteran flounder guide Capt. Skip James. “The harvest of these flounder and their subsequent stocking went very well. We are excited about the results and what it could possibly mean to flounder hatchery production in the future,†said Rodney Gamez, manager of the TPWD ran CCA/CPL hatchery in Corpus Christi. “The harvest from the rearing ponds took a little longer than it does for red drum but we lost very few fish from the hatchery out to the stocking site. The mortality was very low and that is a very good thing,†he added. This ‘experimental' stocking is the result of research conducted by Dr. Joan Holt of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in cooperation with TPWD. “There is obviously an issue with flounder populations and we decided to look into what we could do about it after communicating with TPWD. Two years ago we began work on spawning flounder in captivity and growing the eggs into juveniles large enough to stock,†Holt said. This process ran into a few snags along the way, but Dr. Holt and TPWD officials seem to have worked that out with this recent batch of fish. “It's very exciting to see the research we have done pay off and for them to be able to grow and stock the fish we hatched,†Holt said. TPWD officials will not say if a full-blown stocking program is a lock yet, but with the Texas Coastal Fisheries Bay Team program, they are soliciting live donations of flounder from a variety of bay systems via recreational anglers. “If we end up being able to stock these fish we want to have fish from each bay system. We will have to stock fish into the bay system where their parents came from just as we do with speckled trout,†said Robert Adami who organizes the Texas Coastal Fisheries Bay Team events. “We have six of these events on the calendar and four of them are directed at southern flounder. We are hoping to get enough fish to fill the tanks we have for them at the hatcheries along the coast.†Diehard flounder angler Gerald Burleigh said TPWDÃs current interest in flounder is a logical extension of the work they have done with redfish and speckled trout. “They have taken redfish and trout conservation about as far as it can go or at least it seems that way. Flounder are right behind them in popularity and they are a fish that can be easily caught from the bank, so this is a good thing for all anglers, including those who might be economically disadvantaged and not have boats,†Burleigh said. “If we see an all out captive breeding and stocking effort for flounder it could really turn things around for the species and do what a lot of anglers have been requesting for quite awhile. That is help the flounder populations, which are hit hard by everyone from shrimpers to commercial fishermen and recreational interests, a chance to get back to where it was years ago when catching a limit on rod and reel was commonplace.†“That would be a wonderful thing to see.'
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