Colds abnormal for the state have killed fish all over the Texas coast, with an estimated 4 million fish killed in February 2021 during an abnormal cold snap – at least 61 species.
This includes species such as silver bass, hard headed catfish, anchovy and spotted trout (48%), black drum (31%), sheepdog (8%), sand trout (7%), red drum (3%), gray bass (2%), and red bass (<1%). This event hit the Upper and Lower Laguna Madre systems particularly hard. Lower Lagoon Madre had the highest mortality rate for spotted trout, with an estimated 104,000 fish killed. This represented 65% of the total estimated killings of spotted trout, and when combined with Madre's Upper Lagoon, this accounted for 89% of the total estimated mortality of spotted trout along the Texas coast.
Likewise, in the Upper Laguna Madre, about 82,600 Black Drum specimens were killed, accounting for 78% of the killed Black Drum along the coast.
