The Laguna Madre of Texas: a history and analysis of the spatial understanding and cultural constructions of its fisheries

Abstract

This work is an analysis and description of the fisheries of the Laguna Madre of Texas, a hypersaline coastal environment dominated by seagrasses and protected by a barrier island. It examines the cultural constructions developed by fishing guides, natural resource managers and research scientists involved with the red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), black drum (Pogonias cromis) and speckled trout (Cynoscion nebulosus) fisheries of the Laguna Madre. These constructions come from the work of William Cronon and others in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (1996). This work examines how the fishing guides, natural resource managers and research scientists are connected to the Laguna Madre and how their thoughts, words and actions help shape how we know, understand, manage and protect the Laguna Madre’s prolific fish populations. The analysis involves comparing the objects of study, spatial and temporal knowledge along with the level of personal attachment between fishing guides, natural resource managers and research scientists. A historical account of the Laguna Madre’s fisheries and an overview of its geographical and ecological characteristics is also presented to give an understanding of how these constructions have developed and to put these into a context to better know why these constructions exist.