Compton, Henry, Jr.Texas Parks & Wildlife Coastal Fisheries Project Reports 19652010-02-152010-02-151966http://hdl.handle.net/1969.3/19885pages 55-86; available for download at the link below.Fish populations in the inshore Gulf of Mexico off Port Aransas, Texas, Port Mansfield and Port Isabel, Texas and briefly off Galveston, Texas, were surveyed for type, abundance and size with a flat otter trawl. In regular weekly samples, 25,044 fish of 89 species were caught in 100 otter trawl samples. Atlantic croaker, Micropogon undulatus; sand trout, Cynoscion nothus; moonfish, Vomer setapinnis; bumper, Chloroscombrus chrysurus; and shoal flounder Syacium gunteri, were the five most abundant species taken in depths ranging from 3 to 16 fathoms. These results indicate that enough trash fish may be caught during routine shrimp trawling to sustain a profitable fishery if a market develops. No attempt was made to evaluate the abundance of larger food or game fishes.marine fishtrawl netspopulation dynamicsTechnical Report