Due to the unprecedented winter weather impacting the state, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is asking volunteers in the annual volunteer crab trap cleanup to wait until Feb. 22 before removing any traps with buoys from the open water.
Texas coastal waters will close to crabbing with wire mesh crab traps for 10 consecutive days beginning Feb. 19. The annual closure facilitates the removal of abandoned crab traps from Texas bays. Since the beginning of this effort in 2002, more than 38,000 traps have been removed with the help of nearly 4,000 volunteers coastwide.
“Waiting to remove these traps will allow crabbers the opportunity to collect traps that they may not have been able to pick up earlier in the week due to the recent winter weather conditions,” said Robin Riechers, TPWD Coastal Fisheries Division director.
Locally, the non-facilitated trap drop-off sites for the lower Laguna Madre include Port Mansfield Navigation District Ramp in Raymondville and Adolfe Thomae County Park in Rio Hondo.