Hydrographic and Meteorological Study of the Upper Laguna Madre - Analysis of Population of Sports and Commercial Fin-Fish and of Factors Which Affect These Population in the Coastal Bays of Texas

Water temperatures and salinities were measured at each of 12 stations monthly for 16 months. Water temperatures lagged close behind average air temperatures. Salinities varied inversely with the volume of rainfall with a low of 25 ppt. in December 1961 and a high of 56 ppt. the following October. A hurricane in 1961 opened Packery Channel, which remained opened for eight months and disturbed the sandy bottom on the east flats to kill most of the live shell there. Three consecutive days of freezing weather in January 1962 caused a fish kill in Baffin Bay and Nine-Mile-Hole. Most of the sow trout and many drum in these areas were killed. A hypersaline fish kill also occurred in Nine-Mile-Hole in May 1962.