b'fight against the Port of Corpus Christis plan to build a petrochemical ter-minal on Harbor Island.In what is called the most divided time in modern American history, consensus on numerous, very specific, environmental issues has been found among leaders on all points of the political spectrumthe preservation of Padre and Mustang Islands being the most notable,aswellasthemost significant to the long-term success of theTexas Coastal Bend.The power of good public relationsshouldnotbe underestimated.LuckilyfortheKempsRidley sea turtle, highly committed and ef- fectivepropo-nents have worked thanklesslyonitsbehalf for almost three decades, andplentiful, positivemediacoveragehas resultedinwidespreadThe Plight of the Whooping Crane One of only two crane species sympathyfortheplight of the species. Leaders likein North America, the other being the Sandhill Crane, the Whooping Crane Dr.DonnaShaveratthePadrecame within 21 birds of extinctionin 1941, the low point in its Island National Seashore, and theknown population. Wood BuffaloNational Park in Alberta prov-lateTonyAmosattheUniversityince, Canada, was the birds lastremaining summer habitat of Texas Marine Science Institute inand nesting range for a hun- dred years, until 2001, when PortAransas,wereinstrumentalinpairs of Whoopers begannesting naturally at the bringing back a species on the brinkNecedah NationalWildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. of extinction.The Texas GulfCoast is the only known, Theirextraordinaryeffortsfos- consistent winter migration teredacultureofprotectionforseadestination for Whooping turtles so powerful that the sighting ofCranes, particularly at the Aran-anestingfemaleKempsRidleyonTonysas National Wildlife Refuge north Amos Beach in Port Aransas sparks a coor- of Rockport, Sunset Lake in Portland, dinated response that includes fire and policeSan Jose and Matagorda Islands, and Lamar Point.units, citizen volunteers who stand on-call for such events, and of course biolo-gists and trained scientific profes-sionals dispatched from nearby marine institutes. This one, unique, seaside community, seemingly unlike those surrounding it, has rallied to the cause of protecting and preserving this one family of sea life in a way that is part of the towns fabric. Despite political differences, tree huggers and Trump huggers work side-by-side in a shared effort to help save the future of sea turtles on the beaches of the Texas Coastal Bend.Once the threat of extinction was accepted as real, the effort to combat it was unified. It just took a snap to reality.B efore the highly publicized 1989 Exxon Valdez oilTHE CGAOASTAL BEND MA23Unacceptable Lossspill in Alaska, or the explosion of BPs Deepwater Horizon off the Louisiana coast, or the worlds big-gest crude oil disaster at the hands of Saddam Hus-sein in the first Iraq Warthere was Ixtoc I. The ex-perimental offshore well owned by Pemex, the state oil company of Mexico, blew out in June of 1979 and spewed over three million barrels (130 million gal-TheCoastalBend.comTheCoastalBend.com THE COASTAL BEND MA ZINEFEATURED: The StGAZINEories that MattWinter 2018-19ered 121'