Flounder Stocking - Texas parks and wildlife [official]

THESE BABY FLOUNDER ARE MAKING HISTORY. Nice little habitat for our babies, isn't it? AS THE FIRST FLOUNDER STOCKED INTO GALVESTON BAY THEY REPRESENT HOPE FOR A TEXAS FISH THAT IS, WELL, FLOUNDERING. POPULATIONS HAVE FALLEN BY ABOUT 50% IN THE LAST 30 YEARS, WHICH IS BAD NEWS FOR THE LEGIONS OF FANS THAT ENJOY CATCHING AND EATING THESE TASTY FLATFISH. BIOLOGISTS ATTRIBUTE THE FLOUNDER'S DECLINE TO HABITAT LOSS AND OVERFISHING. TO BOOST FLOUNDER POPULATIONS, TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE HAS TIGHTENED CATCH LIMITS. AND THE AGENCY IS TRYING SOMETHING NEW: FLOUNDER STOCKING. We've been stocking red drum and spotted seatrout for a number of years and the focus in the future is going to be Southern Flounder. BUT FINICKY FLOUNDER DON'T FIT EASILY INTO THE EXISTING HATCHERY MODEL. COMPARED TO REDFISH AND SEATROUT FLOUNDER HAVE A MORE COMPLICATED SPAWNING PROCESS. Where a red drum produces millions of eggs, Southern Flounder may produce only 100,000 at the most. There come some eggs. SO THE FLOUNDER TEAM MANUALLY FERTILIZES THE EGGS AND NURTURES THEM UNTIL THEY'RE READY TO RETURN TO THEIR BAY OF ORIGIN. We want to keep the genetics of the fish sound. Wherever we get the adult stock from, those fish, their progeny, will go back to that bay system. BUT GETTING ENOUGH ADULT STOCK IS NO EASY TASK. THE TEAM NEEDS HUNDREDS OF FLOUNDER TO GET VIABLE EGGS. LUCKILY, SOME SELF-PROCLAIMED FLOUNDER FANATICS VOLUNTEERED TO HELP. Oh, it's awesome, man. It's rare in your life that you get to get involved in some kind of project involved with conservation or something and actually see it happen in your lifetime. These things take a long, long time and to see Parks and Wildlife makes these kinds of strides in a pretty short span is amazing. FOR THE INITIAL STOCKING ABOUT 8,000 FLOUNDER FINGERLINGS WERE RELEASED INTO SABINE LAKE AND GALVESTON BAY. Working with a new species is always exciting. So if we can continue to increase tenfold every year we're going to start seeing some numbers. Each little flounder is a ray of hope. FOR TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE, THIS IS LYDIA SALDANA.