Blue crab catches best since 1980s
Changes to the commercial license program and more freshwater inflows have led to some of the best catches of blue crabs in Texas since crab numbers started declining in Galveston Bay in the late 1980s.
Rain and flooding have increased freshwater inflows, which benefit the crab population because the animals thrive in brackish water, according to Glen Sutton, a crab biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Sutton said the state’s implementation of a crab license buyback program in the early 2000s has reduced the number of permitted anglers looking for crabs in the bay. Now there are 200 licenses in the state, compared with 400 several years ago.
“It’s getting better,” Sutton told The Galveston County Daily News. “We bottomed out around 2007. It didn’t show any signs of recovery for a few years after that, until around three or four years ago where we began to see increases. This year has been really good.”
Crabbing season is 11 months out of the year. It closes down in February, so the state can retrieve any abandoned traps. Crabs caught must be male and measure at least 5 inches between the two spine ridges along the sides of their shells, according to Lance Robinson of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The state limits commercial crabbers to setting 200 traps a year. Recreational crabbers also need a fishing license and are limited in the type of traps they use, Robinson said.
Sutton said the crabs still suffer from the multitude of fish that eat them and the population’s unbalanced male-to-female ratio.
University of Texas stabbing suspect Kendrex White must undergo a second mental examination to assess his competency, a Travis County judge ruled on Thursday.
Judge Tamara Needles sided with prosecutors who a day earlier filed a motion requesting White be evaluated by a doctor other than the one his defense attorneys already hired to test him.
The new test could come as soon as Friday, Needles told White, adding “I’ve got a couple guys in mind, but I want to make sure it’s someone everyone can trust.” White told Needles he appreciated that consideration.
White’s attorneys argued against the additional test, noting that the original test determined him to be competent and warning that prosecutors will use the second test as a back door to gather more information from White about the May 1 campus attack. He is accused of stabbing four students, leaving one of them, 19-yearold Harrison Brown, dead in UT’s second campus murder in a little over a year. White, 21, studied biology at the university.
Authorities and White’s parents have said he suffers from mental illness and recently was admitted involuntarily into a mental hospital in Killeen, his hometown. White likely suffers from schizophrenia, his attorneys told the court Thursday.
According to the arrest affidavit, White told police shortly after the attack he does not remember stabbing anyone, but that it’s possible. He told them he bought a knife the day before the attack for protection.
The newest test will determine if White is mentally fit to understand the criminal proceedings against him. A finding of competency will enable both sides to move forward in the case and focus on setting a trial date. The judge ultimately will make that determination.
But Needles said she will direct the doctor to test White only for competency and not insanity, a different mental health measurement used to determine whether the defendant — because of severe mental illness — was aware of his actions at the time of the crime. Juries who accept this finding can find a defendant not guilty by reason of insanity.
Needles’ ruling came one day after she told attorneys to bring her the report from the first evaluation “as soon as humanly possible.” They got together at noon to hash over motions before White entered the courtroom an hour later.
This was the second day in a row White appeared in court.
Needles stopped just short of issuing a gag order, which would have prohibited attorneys from speaking publicly about the case. She held off, but strongly encouraged attorneys to reject media inquiries.
She also advised White, who recently did a jail interview with a Houston TV station, to refuse any visitors with whom he’s uncomfortable speaking.
The judge did not rule on two other motions prosecutors presented related to the testing of White’s mental health.