BODY OF TEXAS A&M WILDLIFE RESEARCH TECHNICIAN FOUND OFF TEXAS COAST

ROCKPORT — Searchers on Friday afternoon found the body of a Texas A&M University wildlife research technician who had apparently drowned Thursday in Sundown Bay at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas.

The body of Erick “Rick” Joseph Rogers, Jr., 23, of Texas City was found perhaps 100 yards from where he had entered the water, according to Petty Officer 1st Class Joshua Buck of the U.S. Coast Guard based in Corpus Christi. Rogers had been the subject of an intense night-and-day search led by the Coast Guard since Thursday evening.

Rogers and Danielle Rutka, a Texas A&M graduate student in wildlife and fisheries sciences, on Thursday afternoon had been doing research that involved monitoring crabs found in traps along the marshy shore of the bay, which is an estuary of Mesquite Bay, located northeast of Rockport in the wildlife refuge.

According to the Coast Guard, they had traveled there by boat, which they had beached on the shore. At about 4:30 p.m., a strong north wind came up and blew their boat into the bay. Rogers apparently went into the water after it and never returned, Coast Guard spokesman Buck said.

A passing boat spotted Rutka alone on the shore, picked her up and called the Coast Guard.

Buck said Rogers’ body was found in murky water that can run from 2 to 5 feet deep; but the water gets much deeper in the nearby Gulf Intercoastal Waterway.

Rogers, Rutka and other Texas A&M graduate students had been working on a $2 million research project that is examining the potential impacts of a plan to build a pumping station at the mouth of the San Antonio Bay to pump water from the Guadalupe River back to San Antonio. The research concerns how reduced stream flows might affect the San Antonio Bay, vegetation, crabs and the endangered whooping crane. Dr. Doug Slack, a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station scientist and the lead researcher on the project, said that Rogers had been on the project only since September, yet he had already enhanced it through his work ethic and skills. “My first thought is sympathy for the family,” Slack said. “I can’t imagine the loss of a child. He was a valued member of our team, just starting a career in natural resources conservation and a really nice guy. It’s tragic to see his career cut so short.”

Rogers was a 2004 graduate of Texas A&M with a degree in wildlife and fisheries sciences. “Rick was always positive and energetic, and I can’t see him without a smile on his face,” said Dr. Steve Davis, a co-researcher on the project. “The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has lost a member of the Aggie family, and we are deeply saddened to learn of this terrible tragedy,” said Dr. Elsa Murano, vice chancellor and dean of agriculture and life sciences. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Eric ‘Rick’ Rogers along with our special thoughts and prayers.”

“The loss of Erick ‘Rick’ Rogers, who was working on a research project involving whooping cranes in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, is a tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends,” said William E. West, Jr., general manager of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority.

The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, the San Antonio River Authority and the San Antonio Water System are the primary funding agencies for the bay research project.

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