Randy(308) sent this article from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. It is interesting to see the estimated number of fish killed by red tide and cold weather. The local television stations have been airing stories about this.

Red tide takes toll on fish and land mammals
By David Sikes
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
CORPUS CHRISTI — Red tide toxins continue to poison animals on area beaches.
This past weekend, a National Seashore employee took his dog for a walk on the beach near Bob Hall Pier. Within 20 minutes the dog became ill, displaying symptoms similar to those suffered previously by coyotes and pets that had eaten fish killed by red tide on Padre Island National Seashore.
Park officials now have banned all pet dogs from the National Seashore until further notice.
Red tide is a toxic algae that occurs naturally in low concentrations in the Gulf of Mexico. Nobody really knows what triggers its sudden population explosions.
We’re lucky. The coast of Florida suffers annual red tide blooms. We do not.
Reports of dogs and coyotes dying from red tide are rare, according to Ed Buskey at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. “I’ve never heard of land mammals dying from it,” said Buskey, who added that he has heard of whales and manatees succumbing to red tide on the east coast.
Red tide causing illness in land mammals is slightly more common, but most reported cases come from the East Coast.
Researchers at the institute are collecting samples of red tide toxins from the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, possibly to tell whether this year’s red tide produced a more potent toxin or a previously unknown strain of poison. Buskey said they are aware that the algae has a variety of different toxins in its quiver. But nobody is certain what conditions might trigger these specific toxins or whether the toxins have varying degrees of potency.
Another question involves shelf life or the length of time red tide toxins remain viable in dead fish and whether time concentrates the toxins in decaying fish. Testing of dead fish from the beach are under way, said Jim Lindsay, PINS director of science and research.
The earliest reports of this year’s red tide came in mid-September. Within the past several weeks, about a dozen coyotes and a half dozen dogs have either suffered from eating dead fish or died. This has heightened awareness and made questions surrounding red tide more critical than ever.
Padre Island surf angler and park volunteer Nick Meyer, who founded an organization called Citizens for Access and Conservation (CACrights.org) to become more involved with PINS policy, helped organize a fish count on the beach.
The numbers are remarkable.
On Sept. 14, Meyer and his volunteers recorded every dead fish within six separate stretches of the National Seashore. Each 30-foot section represented a typical concentration of dead fishes within the first seven miles of PINS.
After collecting this data, Nick determined the total number of fish by species for each yard of PINS. They plugged in this figure to determine the magnitude of the fish kill for the entire 64 drivable miles of PINS.
Based on this, Meyer estimates that 10,736 trout, 3,579 redfish, 645,949 mullet, 214,720 whiting, 286,293 ladyfish, 10,736 stargazers, 32,208 hardheads, 590,480 bumper, yellowtail, etc. and 1.213 million eels died in this fish kill alone. This was a single day count, representing only a fraction of the total devastation.
Subsequent fish kills occurred later in September and into October from Matagorda Island to South Padre. Texas Parks & Wildlife biologists conducted many additional fish counts on area beaches and bay shores. But we don’t have those numbers yet. They tell me the totals are significant, into the millions.
Anecdotal reports of big trout stinking up Packery Channel and Mustang Island have anglers wondering whether this fish kill rivals historically devastating die-offs. And because our bays and fish populations already were ravaged by drought and therefore vulnerable, the obvious question is whether this will have a negative effect on angling and, if so, for how long. We’re not just talking about redfish and trout here. A tremendous amount of biomass among forage or bait fish species also has been eliminated from the near-shore gulf. We’re not sure how many of these fish also swam in our bays.
You will not find the answers to these questions in this column.
For those who subscribe to a cause and effect conclusion regarding this situation, it might help to examine the aftermath of previous fish kills. These examples do not represent apples-to-apples comparisons.
The 1996 fall red tide event was significant. It killed an estimated 13,500 trout, 12,345 redfish and more than a half-million mullet. Within two years, TPW gillnet surveys revealed a recovered fishery. Fish abundance in some species rose above the 10-year average.
During the 1983-84 freeze, 14 million fish were killed statewide. We lost an estimated 624,000 trout, 274,000 black drum, 104,000 reds and 3 million perch. I don’t have the mullet numbers.
This time, TPW imposed a 20-fish trout limit and a 12-inch minimum length on trout. Before then, no limits existed.
Gillnet surveys from the next year showed a 96 percent decline in overall fish. Remember that only mature fish are big enough to become snared in gillnets.
By 1986, the fishery had improved by 64 percent from the previous year. But before they could fully recover, two freezes hit Texas in 1989.
This time, 17.5 million fish were killed coastwide. The conservative trout tally was 759,000. Redfish, 119,000; black drum, 620,000 and an estimated 4.2 million mullet froze to death.
Again, TPW stepped in, lowing the daily bag on trout to 10 fish with a 15-inch minimum length.
This time the trout population recovered much more quickly and today stands at about twice the population size that existed before 1990, according to TPW biologists.
The most glaring questions from anglers involve periods of poor fishing, most notably this summer and early fall near Rockport. I hear it’s gotten better. Under poor bay conditions, where do fish go when skilled experienced anglers cannot find them?
And what effect did the drought have on the spawn? Will these effects linger?
And what role will increasing fishing pressure play in the decline and recovery during and after natural disasters?
Pray we don’t get the deadly drought-red tide-freeze combination.