Recently, I was lying in a rice field in the El Campo area watching geese fly overhead. The snow goose conservation season had opened and there I was, under the absolute worst hunting conditions, a very light northwest wind, clear sky and very little bird movement. As I lay on my back, trying to stay dry and wondering if my biggest mistake of the day was not bringing some sun block with SPF 50, I began to think about what has happened to this world in the last few years. My mind thought back to the “good ol’ days”, which were not so long ago, and wondered if they would ever come back.

The early and mid 1990’s were pretty good to me. I saw some incredible tarpon fishing off the Texas coast and some of the best goose hunting I have ever seen. But a lot has changed in the last ten years. While there certainly have been some bright spots, the overall news is not good.

I’ve seen farming decrease astronomically. I’ve seen development swallow up the prairie west of Houston. There were rice farms in the Katy area that not too long ago saw wave after wave of geese gliding in over decoys at twenty yards. Now those very same patches of dirt are more likely to see a football passed between elementary school kids encircled by the wooden fence of a cookie cutter subdivision backyard than hear the sound of whistling wings. Farmers are more willing to take substantial government subsidies, grow grass on their farms and wait for the next developer to come knocking on their door than actually take a risk and produce something from their land.

I’ve seen hunting pressure also increase exponentially. I’ve seen hunting go from a noble past time, where being out in the wild and experiencing the challenge of fooling wary birds into decoys was the primary focus, to something less admirable, where the focus is more influenced by the twenty first century, internet, computer generated, instant gratification, gotta-get-em syndrome. For some hunters today, a hunt of less than twenty geese is just “not good enough.” I’ve seen biologist clamor for an all out slaughter of snow geese in the name of conserving tundra and I’ve watched the birds that have adapted so well for centuries adapt faster and more effectively than ever. They simply don’t act like they used to and hunting has suffered. They move in larger flocks and move less frequently. The ones that haven’t adapted to this behavior get killed. Darwin at work again.

As my backside was soaking in some serious mud moisture that morning in the rice field, I began thinking just how similarly linked those geese and tarpon actually are. They may live in different environments and most likely have never laid eyes on one another but the similar impacts of humans on both species cannot be ignored.

The environment tarpon swim in has changed drastically too. While strides have been made in water quality, ever time we turn around, there is a new dam or ground water entrapment being created along our natural rivers. Pollution, when it does occur, is devastating and dramatic. This country’s need for fossil fuels has led to open-loop LNG terminals in the Gulf where larval tarpon, baby marlin, snapper and other immature gamefish swim and are being gobbled up by huge cooling pumps. Boca Grand Pass, always the location of a veritable parking lot of boats, has become a Wal-Mart parking lot at 5:00 a.m. the morning after Thanksgiving. With the jam packed pass, the scream from local guides warning that the boat traffic is causing the fish to leave the pass grows louder each year. Their cries are hard to ignore when the fishing seems to suffer more and more each year.

Yet despite the downturn in the pass, new professional tarpon tournaments located in the pass are being held each year. New lures are developed to catch fish more effectively. Some say they snag fish. Regardless of where you fall on that debate, the truth is man has adapted to catch more fish and it seems to work.

To think that tarpon are not suffering is incomprehensible. But what is being done about it? Well, honestly, very little. The number of boats chasing tarpon has increased each year all along the Gulf Coast. Each year when I return to Boca Grande, the traffic on the beach increases. Every year, there are more boats in Tarpon Alley off Texas. Each year, there is an increase in boat traffic in Louisiana tarpon fishing. And fish everywhere seem to know it.

I’ve seen fewer and more skittish schools of tarpon around Boca Grande. I’ve seen large schools of tarpon off Louisiana becoming scarcer. I remember years when tarpon arrived in Louisiana in early June and on any given weekend from July 4th through September 15th, you were assured of at least catching a few fish. Now, you can run for days and not catch fish. Do you see them, at least a few, but you don’t seem to catch them. Why? Have the tarpon truly adapted? Maybe.

Last year, I saw one of the largest schools of tarpon on the surface I have ever seen in Louisiana. There were at least a dozen boats casting into the schools. For over two hours, not a bait was eaten. Makes you wonder why? If that had been the early 1990’s, everybody would have caught fish. Within 24 hours, those fish were gone. To think that we have nothing to do with that behavior is naïve at best and at worst, ignorant.

But this is not to say that we haven’t adapted some either. We use better, more high-tech equipment. Rods and reels never stop improving and with every spring there is a new gadget. Everybody is trying new lures. When the old ones don’t seem to work as well, everyone tries to find a new technique. Fish finders have become 3D and side scanning. Cell phones permit us to call our buddies when we start catching fish and they show up in a couple hours to take part. The internet permits folks to post fishing reports for the world to see. When we catch fish, there seems to be the natural tendency to brag about it. So, when the fishing is good, everybody knows it and everybody wants to show up. This equates to more pressure on the fish.

Man seems to be his own worst enemy sometimes, yet the other tools at our disposal for finding fish and picking our days on the water have significantly improved. We can now get sea surface temperature readings via satellite and the internet (http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/avhrr/gm/index.html), current flow along the Texas coast is monitored on a daily basis, which helps us locate tarpon as they move (http://tabs.gerg.tamu.edu/Tglo/) and we have wave forecasts from the US Navy and other weather models to “pick our days” on the Gulf better (http://tabs.gerg.tamu.edu/Tglo/wavemodel.html)( http://buoyweather.com/wxnav.jsp?region=GC&program=Maps). Any modern fisherman worth his salt knows how to use these tools to better target the species he is after and to plan ahead. Personally, I attribute our success in the 2004, Texas Tarpon Pro Am to one thing, the TABS website… well a little common sense too. We found the same school of fish we had worked the day before when more than thirty other boats fishing the tournament never did. Only one other boat in the Pro Division even caught a fish. However, the fish were right where they should have been when they came up based on the overnight current movements and the majority of the tournament fleet was fishing only five miles away from them the entire day.

While man seems to be adapting rapidly, the fish may be losing the battle. A tarpon that has spent millions of years feeding during the daylight hours, who is now forced to change that behavior due to boat traffic is adversely affected. A tarpon that once used Boca Grande to amass in pre-spawn congregations by the thousands, now has to go to another, less suitable pass to try and link up with others of its species. Nobody can argue that this is an adversely human impact on the species. There is no doubt this is happening. But what is the ultimate cost? I dare to say that on so many fronts, we are standing at the precipice of the abyss and if we don’t wake up and do something about it, when it all falls down, it is going to be too late to strap on the parachute. What I see in the Texas rice belt with geese west of Houston is being mirrored in Tarpon Alley along the Gulf coast. The image is less clear and is taking place where prying eyes can only see in two dimensions but it is happening nonetheless. Our tarpon fishery is suffering and will continue to suffer.

This is not to say we won’t have good trips and this is not to say we won’t have memorable days on the water. We will. We will even potentially have historic days. But they will become fewer and farther between. In the last couple years, I’ve started fishing in the bays in Port O’Connor for tarpon. I saw a significant change in just one year in that fishery. Is this a trend, maybe, maybe not? Only time will tell. I just hope that when the answer comes, it won’t be too late to do anything about it.

So what can be done? For now, Tarpon Tomorrow along with Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited are launching a comprehensive effort to conduct satellite tarpon tagging off the Texas coast. This is the best place to start. Gathering this information may lead to national and international conservation efforts. Without this research, tarpon don’t stand a chance. The tagging effort is monumental in nature. The funds needed to undertake this effort are huge. Those that ran the previous tarpon program out of Florida will be running the program off Texas. Their experience will be necessary to make the program work. We need to put aside our previous concerns and petty difference which have occurred the past and realize this is going to be a Texas effort and the dollars raised will be used in Texas waters. If you care about tarpon, you need to care about this study. Each of us needs to reach down and make an investment in the future. I can’t think of a better place to start.

As this tagging effort ramps up, I’ll be posting additional information about how to get involved on the message board. Keep an eye out and contribute if you can. Our tarpon fishing future may just depend on it.