Coastal Fisheries - Texas Parks and Wildlife

🗓 Mark your calendars for Free Fishing Day 👉 TOMORROW, June 6! 🎣

The Texas tradition of Free Fishing Day returns at public waterways across the state. Each year on the first Saturday in June, Texans and our visitors can pack their tackle boxes, get their fishing poles ready and go fish on any public waterway in the state without a fishing license.

🐟 Check out a state park near you for free fishing day events: https://tpwd.texas.gov/calendar/state-park-events

🚣‍♀ Or plan a paddle trip with your fishing gear using our interactive paddle trail finder map: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/4e78b5f4b4984b8aa829f3f4265b8537/page/Page

More info about this year's free fishing day ➡ https://bit.ly/FreeFishingDay26
Español ➡ https://bit.ly/DíaDePescaGratis26

Did you know that Kemp’s ridleys, the world’s most endangered sea turtle, call the home?! 🌊 🐢

Kemp's ridleys (Lepidochelys kempii) are a federally endangered species of sea turtle. And believe it or not, right now is currently their nesting season, which occurs on Gulf beaches from the Bolivar Peninsula, Texas to Vera Cruz, Mexico, with 95% of worldwide nesting occurring in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Although their main nesting beach is technically in Mexico, more Kemp’s ridleys nest at Padre Island National Seashore than any other place in the United States.

More fun facts about this unique sea turtle species:
🐢 Kemp’s ridleys are the smallest sea turtle species in the world — adults weigh only about 100 pounds
🥚 Kemp's ridley eggs typically take about 45–55 days to hatch
🌞 Unlike all other sea turtle species that typically nest at night, Kemp's ridleys are famous for nesting in synchronized groups called arribadas, usually during the day

Sea turtle nesting season always reminds us that life is egg-stra good on the Texas coast. If you see a sea turtle on the beach, give her plenty of space and call ➡ 1-866-TURTLE-5 to report it.

Our San Antonio Bay team encountered this juvenile red snapper while collecting samples along the 🌊

Red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) is one of the most sought-after offshore fish, representing an important recreational and commercial fishery. These fish can be caught in all gulf waters.

As young fish, red snapper may be found on muddy seafloor bottoms or inshore environments. Adult red snapper are located primarily near structures in deeper water. They prefer a diet that consists of crab, squid, shrimp and small fish.

Artificial reefs, oil rigs, underwater structures, and snapper banks offshore are the best places to catch red snapper. Hand lines, manual reels and electric reels are all commonly used to catch this species, all equipped with heavy weights and multiple hooks. Bait with fresh squid or cigar minnows. Live pinfish or pigfish will catch larger snappers.

Check out these cayenne keyhole limpets found by our Matagorda Bay team while conducting essential resource sampling along the 🌊 🐌

Cayenne keyhole limpets (Diodora cayenensis) are a species of small to medium-sized sea snails or limpets. Limpets are a group of aquatic snails with a conical shell shape and a strong, muscular foot that helps them cling to rocky surfaces in coastal environments.

The top of these limpets' shells have an oval-shaped hole in them, called the "keyhole." Since this species of sea snail is exposed to air during low tides, they need to draw water into their shell for respiration and excretion, which is expelled through their keyhole.

Our Water Resources Team based in Austin recently assisted the Guadalupe River State Park/Honey Creek State Natural Area staff and Texas Nature Trackers (Alamo Area Master Naturalist) volunteers in collecting fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity for the "Texas City Nature Challenge" 🌱🐟

This event is part of the "Global City Nature Challenge" through iNaturalist. By the end of the three-day challenge, volunteers logged 700+ species of flora and fauna in the park/SNA alone!

Check out this 242 pound bull shark that our Galveston Bay Crew encountered when doing longline sampling along the towards Sabine 🦈

Bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) are common off the coast of Texas and live in most of the subtropical and tropical oceans of the world. Unlike most sharks, bull sharks can live in fresh as well as salt water. Sharks must keep salt in their bodies to survive, and most can live only in salt water. This is because bull sharks have developed special adaptations—the way their kidneys function and special glands near their tails—that help them keep salt in their bodies even when they're in freshwater.

And here in Texas, they have been found many miles upriver from the Gulf.

Bull Shark adults can become quite massive, weighing in from 200-500 pounds. Males can grow to seven feet in length, and females outsize them significantly at 11 feet in length.

Can you believe that this unusual looking critter is actually a crab that calls the home?! 🦀

This is a furcate spider crab (Stenocionops furcatus)- also known as the decorated spider crab. This crab species is a marine decorator crab found in the Gulf, Caribbean, and Atlantic. 🌊

This particular furcate spider crab was caught in a gulf sampling gear north of the Rio Grand Valley reef near South Padre Island. And believe it or not, this is only the second recorded furcate spider crab ever encountered by our Lower Laguna Madre team. The last time this species was recorded was all the way back in 2008 (also near South Padre Island).

‼️ REMINDER ‼️

Federal red snapper season will oFISHally open NEXT FRIDAY, May 22! 🎣

Red snapper fishing is open year-round in Texas state waters. Bag and size limits for federal and state waters will remain unchanged.

Learn more ➡ https://bit.ly/2026FedRedSnapperSeason

Don't forget - anglers fishing in federal waters MUST have a rigged and ready descending device or venting tool on board to use on reef fish exhibiting signs of barotrauma.

Texas anglers are also encouraged to utilize the Texas Hunt & Fish App to log red snapper landings. Anglers can use the app to log harvested game species, view harvest history, save photos and share harvests on social media.

More information about the app and how to use it: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/hunt-and-fish-app/

Check out this banded sea star that was recently found by our San Antonio bay team while conducting gulf samples along the

Banded sea stars (Luidia alternata) are named for the chevron-shaped dark bands that extend down their arms. These bands may vary in color, including reddish, brown, dark green or purple. The edges of their arms are lined with fringing conical spines, and the tube feet are orange.

This species is nocturnal and buries itself in mud and sandy bottoms on the ocean floor.

Banded sea stars can reach about ten inches in diameter, have fairly slender arms, and lack suckers on their tube feet (they have to swallow food whole and regurgitate the undigestible parts).

🦐 Head's up, Shrimpers! 🦐

Commercial shrimp season for both Texas and federal waters in the Gulf will close 30 minutes after sunset May 15, reopening on a still-to-be determined date in July.

More info ➡ https://bit.ly/ShrimpClosure26
Español ➡ https://bit.ly/CamaronesTermina26