b'While Tony continued his research work at UT, in- daily beach surveys, that provided the data needed to ar- continued, like fidelity, the same bird came back to the cluding regular expeditions to Antarctica and elsewhere,gue for and win legally-enforced policies and practices forsame spot on the beach every year.he grew his rescue operation on the grounds of the Marinethe handling of garbage at sea. And his did. Texas LandIn those words, one could hear the connection Tony Science Institute and began raising funds so that he couldCommission Gary Mauro launched the Texas Adopt-a- Amos had with the world around him, the compassion for expand its mission and care for an ever-expanding popula- Beach program, motivated by Tonys work and findings.life inside him that he may not have known projected onto tion of rescued dolphins, sea turtles, birds and even terres- International maritime treaties dealing with commercialso many. It is what we admired about him and what mo-trial animals like injured racoons and coyotes. He beganmarine pollution were won, despite the efforts of powerfultivated us to be like him. It was the soul of a good man recruiting volunteers and veterinarians, and soon his workshipping interests, based on research by Tony Amos andwho would never admit to the jump in his heart when an was being recognized across Texas and the United States.hundreds of others in the field of oceanography. animal he saved was returned to the wildor the lump in The real message had to do with why these creatures, andTonys small compound of labs, holding tanks andhis throat and the tear in his eye when one of his patients millions like them, were injured and needed to be rescuedcages eventually became the Animal Rehabilitation Keepwas lost.in the first placeand the answer in just about every case(ARK), and has to date rescued some 20,000 injured andWhen I see these animals in distress because of was their unfortunate interaction withus. distressed marine animals. Since his death, the ARK hasMans involvement, I empathize with them I guess.In the early 1980s the threat was 200 million gal- beenappropriatelyrenamedtheAmosRehabilitationAbout as much emotion as you would hear from a lons of crude oil pumped into the Gulf of Mexico andKeep. The question of his most personal but least scientificman whose deeds always stood before his words.killing every variety of sea life. By the end of the 80s itendeavor, the one that ended up impacting the most peo- Tony Amos left this earth on September 4, 2017, nine was the highly volatile issue of Turtle Excluder Devicesplein our hearts, where our memories residewas hisdays following the destruction that came with Hurricane (TEDs) and their impact on the shrimping industry. At therescue of living creatures in need. The use of his strength,Harvey to Port Aransas and the ARK. At his memorial same time, plastic garbage cast overboard by commercialhis knowledge, his capacity to help those animals that hadservice, Tonys son, Michael Amos, conveyed his fathers maritime and leisure fishing interests were proven to bebeen hurt by his fellow man, it seems was the mission thatsadness that his lifes work at the ARK might be lost. Port killing marine mammals, but especially sea turtles, thatmeant the most to him.Aransas as a community, along with thousands of people would regularly mistake clear plastic for jellyfish and endFor most, birds on the beach are invisible to them,who have supported the ARK over the years, will assure up dying from intestinal blockages. In 1988, a young PhDTony once told me. Some cant believe I would rehabili- that this is not the case, and that the living legacy of Tony candidate named Pamela Plotkin, working for Tony undertate [sea] gulls, there are so many of them. At one time theAmos will continue for as long as the world requires.a grant at UTMSI, performed necropsies on deceased dol- sky was black with Passenger Pigeons. By 1917 there was phins and turtles that found clear plastic lodged in theirone left in the Cincinnati Zoo. The lifes work of Tony Amos continues at the Amos Re-intestines. I once followed a one-legged Ring Billed Gull forhabilitation Keep (ARK) on the grounds of UTMSI. To This was the big-picture ocean science, like Tonys22 years, that came to the same spot on the beach, hehelp, please visit: FriendsOfTheARK.org TCBFamily and mourners at the Tony Amos memorial in Port Aransas.October 201752 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEJanuary/February 2018 TheCoastalBend.com58 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFEATURED: The Stories that Mattered TheCoastalBend.com'