Coastal Bend Nature Challenge: Port Aransas Jetties

*Joey and William will be guests here on the blog as they document our Nature Challenge journey for 2016.

The Challenge: Exploring and identifying different species and their habitats found at the Port Aransas South Jetty

J: After the UTMSI, we went to the South Jetty in Port Aransas. It’s the tip of Mustang Island. Mostly we saw birds and fish. The first thing we saw were a group of Laughing Gulls. Then I pointed out that crabs could live in the nooks and crannies of the jetties but I didn’t see any.

W: There was a man fishing and he caught a stingray. We got to go over and see it. We saw the bottom of it which looked kind of reddish-pink.

J: We saw a man carrying a fish. We asked him about it. He said he pulled it out from under a rock but it was already dead. Then we saw a man with a net. He was trying to catch mullet. He caught a net full and put them in a bucket but they kept jumping out so he put us in charge of standing guard.

W: Every time the mullet jumped out of the bucket we had to catch them to put back in. But they kept squirming out of our hands! It took us awhile to catch just one. But we did catch them all and made sure no more got out.

J: We saw a pelican sitting on a rock waiting to catch a fish. We sat very quietly and very patiently and watched him. He didn’t catch any fish.

W: As we passed by the fisherman who had caught the stingray, we stopped to talk to him. He asked us, “Have you ever seen live shrimp before?” We responded, “No, but we have seen crawdads.” He pulled out a live shrimp that he was using for bait to show us. We got to hold them. Daddy says live shrimp will catch all kinds of things from stingrays and catfish to redfish and trout.