The American Livebearer Association (ALA) and its affiliate, the Houston Livebearers Association (HLA), are jointly offering a tour of the Goliad Farms hatchery and an associated collecting trip at Coleto Creek. For information concerning the schedule and of the tour/collecting trip, please click here Convention Schedule For information concerning the costs of the Convention and the tour/collecting trip, please click here Registration Form Participation in this tour/collecting trip is restricted to Convention registrants and their spouses. Early registration is encouraged since the number of attendees may be limited by transportation capacity.

 

The tour/collecting trip will commence at the Hilton San Antonio Airport hotel Thursday 7:00 AM, May 1, 2008. Attendees will be transported via van/bus (transportation included in tour package) to Mi Tierra Restaurant and Bakery at San Antonio’s Mercado for TexMex or American breakfasts. Attendees will pay for their own breakfasts. After breakfast the tour will proceed to Goliad Farms less than two hours away. During the trip Charles Clapsaddle, Goliad Farms chief scientist, will provide a description of the day’s activities and conduct a Q&A concerning the hatchery tour and the collecting trip.

 

Hatchery Tour

 

The ALA and HLA are offering an exclusive tour of Goliad Farms LP hatchery . Goliad Farms is a specialty hatchery raising various tropical fishes including many types of livebearers, both commercial strains and wild species. The hatchery is normally closed to the public, but has agreed this one time to open its doors to ALA 2008 Convention registrants.

 

At the hatchery, attendees will see an operating hatchery at work. They will tour the physical plant Goliad Farms uses to produce fish including the greenhouses, vats, water recirculating system, air system, heating and cooling systems, and plant filtration system. During the tour Goliad Farms’ unique intensive fish rearing techniques will be described and discussed.

 

After the tour of the hatchery, attendees will have lunch at the farm (compliments of Goliad Farms) a traditional Texas BBQ catered by Uncle Mutt’s BBQ of nearby Victoria, Texas.

 

 

Coleto Creek Collecting Trip

 

After lunch the attendees will re-board for the short six mile trip to Coleto Creek. Coleto Creek is a clear water tributary of the Guadalupe River. Goliad Farms is providing buckets, seine nets, dip nets, cast nets, minnow traps, bags, a basic first aid kit, bottled water and soft drinks, and oxygen for the collectors. For a list of items not provided that you might want to bring along, click here what to bring   Permits for collecting fish will be provided under a Scientific Collecting permit from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission at no additional cost to the attendees.

 

In early May, afternoon temperatures will be comfortable, around 80ºF. Under normal May conditions, the creek can be waded over much of its course. There are pools that can be six feet or more deep. Currents are only swift between pools where the water flows over gravel and rock riffles. The collecting site is within the American alligator range, but no one has been eaten for the last few decades. There are representatives of all four major groups of North American poisonous snakes, but the Victoria hospitals are only 25 minutes away.

 

For those who don’t want to get wet there is a low water bridge and associated banks to sit on to enjoy the warm weather. For the collectors, there will be a large variety of fishes to be collected. For a full list of the species occurring in Coleto Creek, click here. Fish List . Collecting will end about 4:30 PM to allow for photography of fish and bagging of fish to be kept. The trip back to San Antonio will start at 5:00 PM; stragglers will be left to provide food for the world famous chupacabra ,which stalks the area beginning early evening.

 

During the return to San Antonio, which is scheduled to allow attendees to eat dinner at a reasonable time, Charles will provide debriefing on the tour and collecting trip.

 

            ALA, compliments of Goliad Farms, can provide shipping at the end of the Convention to airports served by Southwest Airlines, Continental Airlines and American Airlines, at the expense of the attendees.