T
features
Oil spills, tourists hamper
Port Aransas researchers
United Press International
:PORT ARANSAS
Scientists who once studied the
Culf of Mexico from an un
spoiled, windswept beach now
are squishing through oil from
of fshore drilling rigs and watch
ing condominiums spring up on
the dunes.
“Development on this island
is rampant and unchecked,”
complained Anthony Amos, a
physical oceanographer at the
University of Texas Marine Sci
ence Institute.
Like the ocean, the institute’s
scientists, faculty and students
are having to adapt to the en
croachment of human beings on
shore and off. Their studies
have moved from strict biology
and chemistry into environmen
tal issues, including oil slicks and
a seafood supply for the future.
Since 1946, the institute’s re
search buildings and dormitor
ies have been the last outpost of
civilization where Mustang Is
land meets the sea east of Cor
pus Christi. Just five years ago
13 miles of’beach stretched away
to the south with nothing but
sand dunes and sea oats.
But now the sun bounces of f
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recreational vehicles parked on
the beach, and nearly a dozen
condominiums rise from the
sand. Port Aransas, once a scruf
fy fishing village, has turned
into a tourist town.
Balls of oil apparently from
of f shore rigs have been washing
onto the Texas coast the past H)
or 15 years. Then in 1979-80,
more than 3 million barrels of oil
was blown into the ocean f rom
the Ixtoc 1 well in the Bay of
Campeche, Mexico, and drifted
600 nautical miles northwest to
Mustang Island.
A yearly change in the ocean
currents saved the island from
devastation, Amos said. But he is
still finding Ixtoc tar reefs —
crude oil that has settled to the
bottom and mixed with sand —
including a 75-foot reef disco
vered in January.
I’lie tar reefs are “nothing
alarming. but interesting,”
Amos said. They will eventually
break into tarballs, wash ashore
and blacken tourists’ feet.
When the oil spill excitement
passed, the institute continued
its research into the delicate ba
lances of marine life.
One graduate student is
studying the effect of changes in
temperature and salinity on
crabs. Another is researching
the food sources provided by sea
grasses, said Rick Tinnin, who
directs marine education ser-
\ ices at the institute.
The institute oversees a
breeding project for Ridley tur
tles, which are being carefully
nurtured to replenish the spe
cies in the Quit’ of Mexico.
The scientists have .also
learned how to make red fish
spawn “almost on command” by
varying light and water temper
ature, Tinnin said. The fish
could eventually be used as a
food source — grown on farms
like catfish — except that they
cannot reproduce in fresh
water.
Hundreds of tourists troop
through the institute when rain
drives them off the beach, and
Tinnin escorts more than 5,000
high school students a year
through the institute. He shows
them the ongoing experiments
and gives tours of the institute’s
well-equipped research vessels
— the 57-foot “Katy” and the
80-foot “Longhorn.”
“These are the kids that are
going to be making decisions ab
out my coastline,” he said.
The University of Texas will
not become of ficially involved in
environmental disputes, so sci
entists who oppose planned de
velopment — like Amps — must
protest as private citizens.
Amos is currently combating
plans to build a crewboat turn
ing basin at a spot that he be
lieves could be a bird sanctuary.
“There are less and less places
where you get these magic days
with perfect calm and you get
hundreds of roseate spoonbills
and reddish egrets. I think it’s an
incredible site," he said.
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