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Symbiotic relationship between grass and fish benefits marine life

Saltwater anglers who prize redfish above all species should also love the seagrass meadows where the bronze brutes forage during warmer months.

These shallow expanses of submerged shoalgrass, turtlegrass and manteegrass abound along the Texas coast, at well known places like Padre Island and in the backwater lakes behind barrier islands like San Jose and Matagorda Islands. They are also the distinguishing characteristic of small bays like those near Port Aransas and Port O’Connor.

With crystal-clear water overlaying the bright green grasses, redfish find rich foraging for mud minnows, mullet and small crabs. Among these delicate grasses, wade fishermen can find a quiet and secluded paradise for memorable angling action.

It’s a sight-casting game for stalkers, who search for telltale signs of redfish—a spotted, turquoise-tinted tail cutting through the water’s surface or the quick rolling wake of a bull red coursing the flats.

Since these flats are often less than knee-deep at normal tides, they are not easily accessed by typical powerboats. To protect seagrass, which is susceptible to harmful scarring from boat propellers, poling, paddling or wading is the optimum mode of transportation.

In addition to being a haven for redfish and the anglers who love to chase them, seagrass meadows are also one of the most important saltwater habitats along the Texas Coast. They are prime nursery areas for shrimp, crabs and numerous species of fish, and these meadows are the feeding areas for many species of wading birds. During the winter, they also provide refuge and sustenance for millions of diving ducks, as well as endangered whooping cranes.

Sadly, there has already been widespread loss the seagrass beds, a problem which escalated during the 1990s with the exploding popularity of shallow-draft, tunnel-hull boats capable of running in only inches of water.

These boats allowed fishermen to run the flats, their outboard propellers plowing deep furrows through the bottom, destroying the seagrass and leaving bare streaks of sand and mud. The damage is most prevalent and evident behind Padre Island in the Upper Laguna Madre.

With an estimated 60 percent of shoalgrass having disappeared, The Nature Conservancy initiated its Seagrass Conservation Project in 2006 to help save the seagrass meadows from greater damage.

A major part of the effort has been the placement of navigation markers along the deep-water access channels to the flats in partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Earl C. Sams Foundation and the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, according to project leader Sonia Najera in Corpus Christi.

More recently, the project has placed educational billboards along coastal highways and signs at launch ramps to alert fishermen to the seagrass problem.

"So far, we’ve had some good positive feedback from boaters and owners of bait shops who are appreciative of what we are trying to do," Najera said.

No one, of course, is more appreciative than the fishermen who love stalking redfish.

To learn more about The Nature Conservancy’s work in Texas, visit nature.org/texas.