A one-hour video documentary “The State of the Gulf-America’s Sea” will air in late February on all Texas public television stations, taking a broad look at the Gulf of Mexico almost a year after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The program will air at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, on KWBU in Waco and KNCT in Killeen and Temple. It’s the fifth in an award-winning series of water resource documentaries produced by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and broadcast in partnership with PBS stations.

It will explore the rich diversity of the Gulf, its flora and fauna, geology and hydrology. The program will weigh the variety of ecosystem services the Gulf provides to people and the various forces that threaten it, from oxygen-depleted zones to hurricanes and oil spills.

Critical habitats such as marshes and seagrasses will be examined, along with water quality and climate change. Viewers will also see how pragmatic regulation and active fisheries management has protected and enhanced marine resources for a sustainable future.

The program is part of a broader TPWD conservation awareness initiative begun in 2002 with a series of special water resource issues of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. The special issues have run each July, building to a 10-year anniversary water issue coming this year. The initiative also includes radio, Internet and other components.

Big buck record

Twenty years is a long time for a record to stand. Nope, 20 wasn’t the number of years since Baylor’s last bowl game. It wasn’t the span of time that the UConn women’s basketball team went unbeaten. It wasn’t even Brett Favre’s run of consecutive starts.

Hunting in Texas is all about big numbers, which makes it surprising that a whitetail deer record could withstand two decades of battering. But the stopwatch has been reset for the Texas Big Game Awards typical whitetail deer record since Jack Brittingham took down a monster buck with an arrow on his Dimmitt County ranch back in October.

Brittingham’s buck gross scored 213 7/8 Boone & Crockett, topping the previous record of 190 1/4 which had stood since the first year of the program’s existence. It’s unlikely that the new mark will linger in the record book as long as the first, however, thanks to innovations in breeding techniques and herd management practices that are geared toward creating trophy bucks.

The new record-setting whitetail will be on display at the TBGA Statewide Sportsman’s Celebration, to be held in conjunction with the Texas Wildlife Association’s annual convention July 7-10 at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa.

Craving catfish?

If you like catching or eating catfish, then you should be pretty happy here in Central Texas. Some of the best catfishing waters can be found here, and as catfish dinners go, it’s hard to beat places like Griff’s and other home-style restaurants in the area.

And now there’s something new for catfish enthusiasts of all types. Kevin Foster has started a catfish-oriented business that offers both catching catfish and chowing on them. Foster runs chartered catfishing trips on Lake Waco and other lakes in the area, and he also does catfish catering jobs for groups and charity events.

Foster, the former director of tennis at the Charlie McCleary Tennis Center, also helps his wife Leni run their handful of Little Caesars restaurants in town, but give him a call (709-3058) and he’ll make time.

For more information, go to Foster’s blog at tightlinecatfish.blogspot.com.

www.centexoutdoors.com

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