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While helping Texas Parks and Wildlife (TP&WD) with the Southern Flounder brood stock collection for restocking of Sabine Lake for 8 years, I have been researching the Texas American Eels. I had many questions in regards with the species and its regulations pertaining to catching. Thus to be safe, I got permission from TP&WD to do research on the American Eel in Texas. In addition, I would ask about the Texas American Eel research every few years to cover myself in case of any changes in Texas Parks and Wild Code.

On February 25, 2014, Lance Robinson the Regional Director Coastal Fisheries Division at the Dickinson Laboratory in Dickinson TX., Mr. Robinson gave me the OK to catch American Eels in any quantity and size I wanted. He wrote me an email stating that, “there is currently no bag limit or minimum or size limit for eels and if I planned on using them for commercial purposes all I would need is a general commercial fishing license in order to harvest them from Texas waters”.

I could not believe what Mr.  Robinson affirmed in his email. According to him, it was legal to harvest American Eels for commercial purposes, because the American Eel was not listed on the Freshwater commercial list.

However, Mr. Robinson replied that since I was catching them below the Saltwater Line they fell into the Saltwater Regulations and Saltwater Regulations allowed for a broader harvest of species. After so many years of research, I could start making money and bring this industry to the Citizens of Texas. I was catching adults for spawning research and was only researching the Glass Eels in Saltwater trying to figure out what was best to feed them and to figure out other problems with the Larval to the Glass Eel stage.

March 24 2014, I contacted Mr. Robinson to inform him that I had located large quantities of American Glass Eels. Mr. Robinson then sent an email to a person named Mark Webb an Inland Fisheries Biologist regarding the location of the Glass Eels. However, I never heard anything from Mr. Webb. In the following days, Mr. Robinson asked me if I could collect some samples for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Subsequently I replied to him that I can provide anything he needed or wanted. “I’m always here to help”. I asked if Mr. Robinson knew how to get a Certificate of Origin and Certificate of Health.  Then, Mr. Robinson replied he did not know what I was talking about, and asked me why I would want these Certificates. I replied back to him that with these certificates I could prove that the Eels really came from Texas. No one from Texas Parks and Wildlife seem to take me seriously that I had proof of the American Eel in Texas waters.

On March 26, 2014 I contacted Mr. Robinson to let him know I had his samples ready and on April 13 2014, Jerry a biologist at the Port Arthur facility sent Linda by to pick up the samples. I gave her two live six-inch elvers and five three-inch live American Glass Eels for identification and small bottle of dead ones in alcohol. Lance Robinson Regional Director Coastal Fisheries Division at the Dickinson Laboratory in Dickinson TX wrote me an email stating, “It would make a good thesis or research paper but the Texas American eel was rarely seen or ever caught in Texas Parks and Wildlife sampling”. The sampling gear used by TP&WD was not setup to catch Eels that is why they rarely catch any. Mr. Robinson and I had been talking and working together for about a year at this time on different permits. [1]

On April 14, 2014, I called NOAA if they could come to and look at samples of American Glass Eels I had collected from the wild. I wanted to get a Certificate of Origin and Certificate of Health as a way to prove the American Eel existed in Texas. The NOAA Representative showed up on April 16, 2014.He could not believe his eyes as he confirmed the samples were the American Eel and he said this would be a great thing for Texas. NOAA gave me both certificates I needed.

The following week I prepared a few more samples for people who could also identify American Glass Eels. I wanted as much confirmation that this was in fact Texas American Glass Eel. All of my samples were confirmed it was indeed the American Eel. They were verified as the species everyone was amazed that the Eels came from Texas.

On May 13, 2014, I emailed Mr. Robinson about the samples I sent for identification. Mr. Robinson replied “that the biologists had looked at the Eel samples that I had provided and they were not the American Eel. Mr. Robinson stated that the samples I sent were not American Glass Eels rather they were a species of “Shrimp Eel (Ophichthus Gomesi) or speckled worm eel (Myrophis Punctatus) and the American Eel did not possess a true Caudal Fin “or Tail Fin.” I couldn’t believe they were lying to me on the species identity, whereas, three other people and NOAA had all confirmed that it was the American Glass Eel. All of the samples were collected from the same group and the Shrimp Eel species only lives in Saltwater. Speckled worm eels only go as far as brackish water. Shrimp Eels, Speckled worm eels do not have Caudal Fins, and every Glass Eel I had in the tanks with freshwater all had Caudal Fins

On May 15 2014, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Warden started calling and harassing me wanting to come to my house and see if I had any American Eels in my possession. Warden Mike Boone claimed that there was “No means or No methods to catch the American Eel in Texas legally. “Which was a false statement by Warden Boone. I am familiar with Mike Boone because this Game Warden is known for being a bully and corrupt here in Hardin County. After cussing and threatening me with an investigation, he hung up the phone and I began to wonder what was going on.
I figured that was the end of it (I was so wrong it was just the beginning) I carried on with my research. I later found the Federal Environmental Impact Report on the Neches River Saltwater Barrier that Texas Parks and Wildlife claiming the American Eel hasn’t existed in that Texas River since the 1950’s. [ 2]

On July 7 ,2015 I found out about American Eel research going on in Louisiana by Louisiana Fish and Game from a guy that later turned out to be a spy for Texas Parks and Wildlife. I immediately contacted Robbie Maxwell who claimed to be the Biologist doing American Eel research. We had an hour-long conversation on the American Eel in Louisiana and how it was legal to commercially harvest it there in Louisiana (which I already knew was legal in Louisiana). The next day I send Robbie a few emails of videos and pictures of American Eels in the Wild and other research that I had been doing. A day after I received an email from Robbie that was not supposed to be addressed to me. Robbie was sending the email to a person named Ben Labay a Biologist in the University of Texas in Austin.  Below is the exact email I received:

Ben,
I just got off the phone with Jason out by Beaumont. He is sitting on a wealth of information about eels, and is doing some awesome work with them. He’s bred them in captivity, and has even had a spawning with no artificial hormones. I’m meeting with him in a couple of days, and I wanted to get you in the loop. Check out the pictures and videos.
Robby Maxwell
Fisheries Biologist
Inland Fisheries Division
LA Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries