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Our two weeks in Port Aransas were marred by the coldest and wettest winter storm in a century in Texas. Even though it was miserable for us it was worse in other parts of Texas, Austin (the capital) shut down because of all the snow, ice and hazardous conditions. At least we didn’t have snow! Our first and last couple days were sunny and warm and we took full advantage of them.

It was incredibly easy to find things to do since we were camping at a park right on the beach. Finding the park was a bit of a challenge since it has a different name depending on which brochure, book or sign you are reading. It is referred to as the Nueces County Park, Port Aransas Park and I.B. Magee Beach Park. We never really did figure out the correct name but Port A (as the locals call it) isn’t that big of a town so you’ll eventually find it.

Port A sits on the northern tip of Mustang Island, one of the barrier islands that protect the Texas coast. Mustang Island was named after the wild horses (mesteños in Spanish) that once roamed its shores. The horses had escaped from various Spanish shipwrecks and settlements in the area. The first European to visit the island was Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, a Spanish explorer who charted the Gulf Coast in 1519. Pineda wasn’t around long enough to make much of an impact as he was beheaded by an Indian tribe later that same year. Somehow his maps and records survived.

A bit over 18 beach miles to the south is the famous Padre Island with its National Seashore and across the Shipping Channel to the north is San Jose Island, the only privately owned barrier island in Texas. We could see the shore of San Jose (aka St. Jo and St. Joseph) across the channel, it was less than ¼ mile away.

The Shipping Channel was created by enlarging and protecting a natural pass between Mustang and San Jose islands. It was one of only three natural passes among the barrier islands. The lack of access and the constant shifting of the passes kept out all but the most adventurous of seafarers and renegades. Before the mile long North and South Jetties were constructed, storms would rearrange the shifting sand and ships would run aground in what had previously been deep water. The Jetties help keep the deep channel open so that huge ships have access to Corpus Christi’s busy port.

From our campsite we were constantly dwarfed by immense supertankers that plied the channel behind us. Supertankers are by far the cheapest way to transport oil but they may not be the safest. They are notoriously difficult to steer and it takes them over a mile to stop. Any coastline poses hazards to supertankers, they are much better off in the open ocean.

Thankfully, Port A is not currently a major port. It was however, an important port during the Civil War. Port A supplied the Confederates with beef, salt, seafood and cotton until Union ships shut it down. Nowadays, fishing, tourism and Winter Texans (retired folks who spend the winters here, a much nicer term than “snowbirds”) support the town of 3,500. While there are certainly plenty of shops, restaurants, and lodging, the town has escaped the high-rise resort/condominium scourge thus far. That is one of the things we liked best about it, it was small, friendly and fairly priced.

The bounty of the Gulf has been and still is the mainstay of the community. The Gulf waters around the island are home to over 600 species of saltwater fish, not to mention all the other marine animals. Tarpon fishing drew President Franklin Roosevelt here and he stayed at the Tarpon Inn during his successful trip. The Tarpon Inn is still in business but the only thing original about it is the location. The Inn was leveled by the two major hurricanes that twice wiped out the town, an unnamed storm in 1919 and Celia in 1971.

While fishing is still important much of the emphasis has shifted to researching the inhabitants of the water. The University of Texas Marine Science Institute was founded here in 1941. Since then the Institute has emerged as the authority on the Gulf and its resident sea turtles. There is irony in that Port A was once a large shipping port of sea turtles meant for consumption. They used to brag about how they shipped them live on their backs to preserve the quality of the “delicious meat”.

I had an opportunity to attend a talk on sea turtles given by Tony Amos, an oceanographer at UTMSI and the director of ARK (Animal Rehabilitation Keep), a non-profit center that rescues and rehabs area animals. Many of the turtles and birds at the center were injured or tangled in refuse; plastic bags and fishing line were the biggest culprits. His soft British accent and sense of humor kept the crowd of close to 100 rapt for well over an hour.

The sea turtles we saw swimming in the channel, near the South Jetty, were probably Green Sea Turtles. They are the only vegetarians in the seven-member sea turtle family and can weigh about 400 pounds. They and Loggerheads are the most common in these waters but that is a relative term since all sea turtles are endangered. The two most endangered are the largest, the Leatherback, and the smallest, Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, which are also seen in the area. Leatherbacks, which exclusively eat jellyfish, can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. Hawksbills are also found in the Gulf but very rarely, which means that the Gulf is home to 5 of the 7 sea turtle species in the world!

Kemps’ Ridley is probably the most famous of the sea turtles because its plight was so desperate. In the late 1940s over 40,000 Kemp’s Ridleys nested on beaches in Mexico, Texas and Florida; by the 1970s that number had plummeted to 42. Scientists in both the U.S. and Mexico joined together in an effort to help the ancient species survive. Recently over 5,000 nests were recorded meaning the extensive research and protection has paid off. While a few nests have been reported on Mustang Island Kemp’s Ridley still nests mostly in Mexico with a growing number of nests on Padre Island.

Sea turtles weren’t the only residents of the Shipping Channel. We spent several afternoons watching the antics of Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins. They were taking advantage of the fish that the huge ships stirred up. They had some competition for the fish from cormorants, pelicans, herons, skimmers, gulls, terns and osprey. There was always something new to see out there.

I had heard the area was great for finding sand dollars but I was quite disappointed my first time out, finding only broken ones. The next day I found some but they were more like sand dimes, they were the smallest ones I have ever seen.

I watched two people that at first I thought were metal detecting, then I wondered if they were digging for clams but they weren’t. Puzzled, I finally asked. They were collecting “Ghost Shrimp” to use as bait. They earned the name “ghost shrimp” because they are translucent. I’ve read you can watch their food go right through them!

The small crustaceans live in the sand (most people would be disgusted by the beach if they knew all the things that live in the sand under their toes) near the low tide line. Using a sand pump (made out of a couple lengths of PVC pipe) they would find an air hole, suck up about 6” of sand and dump it out.

The shrimp which had been previously minding his own business safe underground was now on the surface. If it was too small the couple would just let it burrow back into the sand, if one of the ever attentive gulls following them didn’t get it first. If it was big enough it went into their pail of salt water for later use.

Since we were on the beach it made sense to have some seafood so we rode our bikes one evening to Moby Dick’s, a restaurant, bar and gift shop. In warmer weather they have live music outside on the patio, but that evening we were all happy to be cozy inside. The special was a Cajun Boil and since we’d never had it before we both tried it. When in Rome…

The “boil” is a cauldron filled with spices and herbs that the seafood, potatoes, sausage and corn on the cob are dumped into. When done they are scooped out onto the plate. We loved the crab and shrimp, the sausage was spicy, the corn and potatoes were tasty, the crayfish weren’t our favorites (they were a lot of work and had a strong flavor). Overall it was delicious!

Port A is our favorite place in Texas so far but we still have a lot to explore. Next we will head back to the mainland for a week in the “Sparkling City by the Sea”, Corpus Christi.

Photos: View our pictures from Port Aransas, Texas.

Notes: We stayed in Port Aransas, Texas from 01/07/2007 to 01/21/2007.