Texas (and federal) commercial shrimp season opened July 15th this year. Shrimp boats drag their nets at night and most are anchored during the day while crews rest. Because they offer shelter (and food in the way of undesirable critters that are thrown overboard) to small bait fish and organisms, it’s always worth checking to see if any game fish are lurking below.
Extremely intelligent Bottlenose Dolphins waiting to snack on an unlucky Red Snapper that is too small to keep. Some escape. Most do not.
When Snapper take drag, you know they’re big.
Juvenile Atlantic Tripletail and other sport fish are often found sheltering under floating mats of Sargassum seaweed and other natural objects like drift wood. Around 35 miles offshore, this one decided to make its home near a floating trash bag we believe was thrown overboard by a nearby shrimp boat crew. The baby fish ate a few of our bits of chum, but refused to venture more than 10 or so feet from the safety of the trash bag. This experienced reminded me of a SciShow video I’d recently watched, which discusses the nuances and complexities of ocean surface clean-up. Namely, the issues with removing trash that sea-life is using as habitat. Small organisms in open water are at great risk of predation by larger animals.
Damn Hammerhead. Not cool.
