Texas Water Project
World Left Behind

Hunter Haug
spring 2024


I am focusing on the two different forms of pollution in the San Marcos River. The two pollutions within the San Marcos River are trash and waste. Trash and waste are being discarded into the river by people. It’s also accidentally getting left and blown into the river. Invasive species have also made its way into the river because people are disposing them within there.




There have been many times that I have been free diving at the river, and I have seen piles of trash left by lazy people. People who forget their things or don’t care enough to clean up their mess. Over the many years that I have been here in San Marcos, I have found a numerous number of interesting items in the river such as, fishing lures, beer cans, sunglasses, swim goggles, tubes, and jewelry.



 

Artist Renee Perez










There are many different types of invasive fish species in the San Marcos River. Thanks to my friends who got me into spearfishing, I have gotten to explore the many caves in the river. I’ve also had the chance to see the heavily populated area of these fish. The list of species that I’ve seen within the river ranges from the very popular sucker mouth catfish, common carp, tilapia, and even goldfish. People might ask how these fish make it into the river, well people just throw them carelessly into the river not thinking. By people carelessly throwing these fish into the river they are heavily harming and impacting the ecosystem. Most of these fish were introduced through aquarium dumping. Aquarium dumping is when people are taking, they’re at home fish tanks to the river and releasing nonnative fish into the river. A river which is not meant to have these species because the ecosystem is not built to have them within it. 











With this project I hope to make people aware of the damage that is being done to the San Marcos River. The project shows the devastation that these forms of pollution have on the very fragile ecosystem. We as people who live in San Marcos and enjoy the river should take care of the fragile state of the river, before the ecosystem falls off, crashes, and burns. It only takes a small amount of imbalance to throw the whole system out of working.






Addition Links for more infomation:

fox 7 Austin:
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/invasive-suckermouth-catfish-continue-to-swim-in-san-marcos-rivers

San Antonio Express News:
https://www.expressnews.com/hill-country/article/san-marcos-river-invasive-spearfish-tournament-18665504.php

kxan:
https://www.kxan.com/news/local/hays/hundreds-of-invasive-fish-removed-from-san-marcos-river-why-aquarium-dumping-is-bad/

the Universty star:
https://universitystar.com/16428/news/think-before-you-discard-increase-in-invasive-species-has-impact-on-river/

Work Cited:
Texas Parks and Wildlife. (2023). Fighting an Armored Invasion. Youtube. youtube.com/watch?v=p3kcqu5c1m