A free-flowing
Cedar Bayou would greatly benefit fish, birds, hunters,
anglers, birders and the local economy.
County and CCA Texas is making sig- nificant progress. So far, Aransas County has pledged $985,000 in Coastal Impact Assistance Program funds toward the cost of opening the pass and allocated an additional $1.75 million that was saved by restructuring a gener- al revenue bond. On top of that, CCA Texas has pledged $520,000, bringing the total secured so far to $3.225 million. To secure the remaining amount, the County and CCA Texas have partnered to hire a professional fundraiser and applications to several federal grant programs have already been made. Critically, Aransas County has also announced that it will annually allocate at least $50,000 to a Cedar Bayou Maintenance Fund, a vital component to keeping the pass open in the future. “The County is clearly committed to doing the project right and making
sure that it succeeds over the long term,” said Robby Byers, executive director of CCA Texas. “This has not been an easy road, but the pieces are really starting to fall into place. It is a major undertaking, but we have faith that the partnership between the County, CCA Texas and the recreation- al angling community will get it done.”
SETTING BASELINES Re-establishing this historical connec-
tion between Mesquite Bay and the Gulf of Mexico has the potential to increase fisheries productivity and restore ecolog- ical functioning to Cedar Bayou and the region. However, we are missing some key scientific elements — essential bench- marks that document conditions prior to opening the inlet. Historical baselines are crucial because they will allow us to doc- ument potential changes that take place once flow has been restored. To carry out the critical pre-opening
assessments the Fisheries and Ocean Health Lab at the Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi, has been funded by CCA Texas to assess the impacts re- opening Cedar Bayou inlet have on the local ecosystem, by focusing on recre- ational fisheries productivity in the adjacent habitats within the Aransas
Bay complex. The first step is to gener- ate a pre-opening baseline. Having these scientific benchmarks is at the core of the scientific process and will allow us to pin-point cause-and-effect relationships. To carry out these studies, our fish-
eries team will begin extensive sam- pling on a seasonal basis during the initial pre-opening phase, which will establish a database on fish abundance and recruitment to Mesquite and near- by bays before the inlet opens. To quan- tify juvenile fish and crustacean densi- ties pre- and post-opening of Cedar Bayou, we will establish sampling loca- tions at varying distances from Cedar Bayou/Vinson Slough, in areas that are likely to be impacted, but also in areas that will not (“control” areas). We use a very sophisticated scientific
design called Before-After Control- Impact (BACI), and this “fancy” experi- mental design essentially allows us to statistically pinpoint changes due to the actual water flow and Bayou opening as opposed to a variety of other potentially contributing factors. This is important because estuaries are very dynamic sys- tems, and a lot of factors can drive changes in fish abundance besides inlet flow. Thus, our BACI design will allow us to tell apart these effects. Samples will be collected seasonally in key habi-
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