An assessment of the sportfishery on artificial "Liberty Ship" reefs off Port Aransas, Texas

The concept of using surplus World War II Liberty Ships for the construction of artificial reefs to increase the availability of sportfish off the Texas coast was originally suggested in 1974. It became a reality, under the guidance of the Texas Coastal and Marine Council, when three ships were sunk off Port Aransas in the winter of 1976. Since that time, the ships have rapidly become encrusted with algae, anemones, sea urchins, gorgonian coral and other attached marine life. These in turn have provided refuge and food source for a host of small invertebrates and fishes. In June of 1977, one and a half years after ·sinking the first ship, the Texas Coastal and Marine Council commissioned this study to evaluate the impact of the Liberty Ship reefs on sportfishing in the Port Aransas area. For a project such as the Liberty Ship reefs to be successful, there are two criteria: the ships must increase the supply of desirable sportfish and fishermen must be willing to utilize the new resource. The present study is an attempt to evaluate both aspects of the project. A user survey was conducted to determine the amount and type of recreational usage the Liberty Ships receive.A report to the Texas Coastal and Marine Council in fulfillment of Contract No. IAC(76-77)-2149Submitted September 1977Marine Scienc

The icthyofaunal composition and trophic interactions of the artificial "Liberty Ship" reefs off Port Aransas, Texas

This study is an assessment of the biological effects resulting from the construction of an artificial reef consisting of three surplus Liberty Ships that were sunk off Port Aransas, Texas in 1976. ... Systematic monthly assessment of the Liberty Ship Reefs presented a unique sampling problem. Snagging problems made trawling and other methods of netting unfeasible while depth, turbidity and currents precluded diver transects, baited camera recorders, or hook and line assessments, at least during the winter sampling periods. Fish traps were proposed as a reliable and cost effective means of sampling in all types of weather and sea conditions. Fish traps allow concurrent sampling of open bottom areas and reef with the same ship, making possible a true comparison of the relative productivity of artificial reefs. They also allow consistent day-night sampling and seasonal replication without the inherent variations in skill that bias diver transects and hook and line assessments. This initial report describes the construction and deployment of traps and summarizes the data collected during January-February sampling cruises. These initial sampling cruises indicate that fish traps are a practical method of assessing the productivity of the artificial "Liberty Ship" reefs.Winter seasonal report submitted to the Texas Coastal and Marine Council in partial fulfillment of IAC (78-79)--0869Submitted March 1978Marine Scienc

Species composition and ecological relationships of icthyofauna on artificial Liberty Ship reefs off Port Aransas, Texas : final report submitted to the Texas Coastal and Marine Council in partial fulfillment of IAC (78-79)-0869

Submitted August 1978Five cruises were made to the Liberty Ship Reef off Port Aransas, Texas in June and July 1978. Collecting procedures, which included sampling by fish trap, hook and line, and long line, were relatively unchanged from previous trips. Increased diver participation allowed more reliable placement of the traps onto the deck of the ships. Diver observations of fish greatly supplemented other data collecting methods. Fishes collected or observed on the ship reef were divided into four ecological groups: 1) obligate reef fishes which are demersal and almost always associated with natural or artificial structures, 2) coastal pelagic species which are attracted to structures for orientation, 3) estuarine-dependent opportunistic species which exploit the reef for food and shelter but are not confined to that habitat, 4) typical continental shelf species which occur near the ship reef but are not actually associated with it. At this time of year the Liberty Ship reefs support a large and diverse fish fauna, composed of both predator and prey species, and appears to have many characteristics of a complete reef habitat with an abundance of catchable sportfish.Marine Scienc

Natural History Specimen Collections

The Fish Collection described in this document was transferred in 1992 to the Fish Collection of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin (at that time administratively in the Texas Memorial Museum, but at the time of publication of this digital version of the document it is one (https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/resources/collections/ichthyology) of the Biodiversity Collections in the University's Biodiversity Center (https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/). Thus, the data on the specimens in the Fish Collection described here are now included in the data published to GBIF (https://www.gbif.org/dataset/6080b6cc-1c24-41ff-ad7f-0ebe7b56f311) and other global biodiversity data aggregators by the UT Biodiversity Center's Fish Collection. The same data are also included in the Fishes of Texas Project (http://fishesoftexas.org - Hendrickson, Dean A., and Adam E. Cohen. 2015. “Fishes of Texas Project Database (Version 2.0)” doi:10.17603/C3WC70). Some of the UTMSI Fish Collection specimens remained at the UT Marine Science Insitute on long-term loan from 1992 until sometime in 2017 when the MSI disposed of all remaining specimens (including also Invertebrates). Some were disposed of by a professional HazMat company, but many were apparently taken to the Smithsonian Institution's (USNM) division of Invertebrate Biology. The fate of fish specimens, however, remains unresolved, but the Ichthyology Division at USNM had no knowledge of them at the time this report was archived here. Dean A. Hendrickson, Curator of Ichthyology, UT Austin, May 1, 2019The University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas Marine Laboratory, Natural History Collection of Marine Organisms was initiated in the mid-1940's. Since that time specimens have been added from studies in the Gulf of Mexico, associated estuaries, and marine-influenced terrestrial habitats, with emphasis on the Texas and Mexico coasts. These studies were the baseline surveys for this area and have resulted in the collection of valuable marine organisms. The collection now holds approximately 5,000 catalogued specimens including all forms of biota, vertebrates, invertebrates, algae and flowering plants. The collection includes the marine fish and invertebrate specimens of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, incorporated into the UTMSI-PAML collection in 1976. This state collection, numbering 3,000, is composed primarily of Texas Gulf coast species of fish and invertebrates, representing baseline surveys conducted by the state fisheries biologists. With this collection are card catalogues by specimen number and phylogenetic order. Other collections incorporated are those from R/V Oregon cruises (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, exploratory fishing vessel), H. H. Hildebrand's faunal surveys of the brown and pink shrimp grounds , Whitten et al.'s faunal survey of Texas coast jetties , J. W. Hedgepeth’s specimens collected during numerous faunal surveys, tide trap studies, and vegetation and algal surveys. Noteworthy studies from which specimens have been added to the collection are listed in Table 1. The museum collection is housed in an air-conditioned building in a room specifically designed for this collection. The present facility contains 924 square feet with 1089 square feet of shelf space, which can be trebled to accommodate BLM collections. There are at present 32 1' x 12' shelves, totaling 384 square feet; 194 18" x 12-1/2" shelves, totaling 303 square feet; and 120 11-1/2" x 42" shelves, totaling 402 5 square feet. The collection is a working museum open to the scientific community; specimens are available on loan to members of this community. Specimens may be used by visiting researchers, graduate-level students, professors, and classes. Attached is an invoice form, "Invoice of Specimens" - a standard form used for loan of collection items. The Port Aransas Marine Laboratory is committed to the continuing curation of specimens and will continue to provide the supplies necessary to maintain the natural history specimen collections. The University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas Marine Laboratory is willing to incorporate the Bureau of Land Management collection into its collection. Funding is requested from BLM to obtain and incorporate all archived BLM specimens from the S.T.O.C.S. survey into the collection.Integrative Biolog

Artificial upwelling progress, 1976-1977

Final report for work supported by NOAA, Sea Grant Project 04-6-158-44117.A pilot-stage, two-trophic-level, deep-sea water mariculture system was operated on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands over a nine-month period. Antarctic Intermediate Water from about 870 m depth was pumped continuously into two 50,000-liter onshore pools. The pools were inoculated with laboratory grown cultures of the diatom Chaetoceros curvisetus (STX-167) and operated at a turnover rate of 1.15 day-1. Twenty-nine (29) such cultures were started and lasted an average of 17.0 days each. Mean down-time required for deactivation and restarting of cultures was 54 hours.National Sea Grant Program (U.S.)Marine Scienc

The utilization of cold, nutrient-rich deep ocean water

Presented at: Triennial International Exhibition on the Exploitation of the Oceans, Bordeaux, FranceIn tropical and subtropical areas of the oceans, the warm surface waters constitute the world's largest storage of solar energy. The underlying cold deep water, less than 1000 m below the ocean's surface, constitutes a cold sink, making it possible to generate mechanical energy by inserting a suitable heat engine between the warm and cold waters. The energy required for pumping the deep water to the surface is typically 6.5% of the total energy produced by the plant. The nitrate, phosphate and other nutrients dissolved in the deep sea water constitute the raw materials for plant growth when brought into the light at the surface. Extrapolation of results from small-scale experiments conducted at the St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands) ‘Artificial Upwelling’ station, indicate that this system could produce 20 times more algal protein per hectare than alfalfa, the highest protein-producer per hectare in land-based agriculture. The algal protein can be converted into clam protein with better than 30% efficiency. It is recommended that a commercial feasibility test of a combined sea-thermal power plant and mariculture operation, utilizing deep-sea water and sunshine as major raw materials, be undertaken.Marine Scienc