94 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Early Summer 2018 TheCoastalBend.com Port Aransas LEGACY OF TONY AMOS ALIVE AND WELL IN PORT A Less than a year after his death, and withstanding se- vere damage to the Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK, now the Amos Rehabilitation Keep) that he thought could mark the loss of his life’s work, Tony Amos would today be pleased to see the level of organized effort that islanders apply to the protection of ocean life, particularly endangered sea turtles. It is the standing practice of City of Port Aransas emergency responders to identify, protect and report sea turtles on the beach, both for their physical safety, and so that the eggs of female turtles nesting on the beach can be collected, protected, and incu- bated, with the hatchings later safely released back to the ocean. This practice along the gulf coast both in the United States and Mexico has resulted in the preservation of a number of sea turtle species, including the Kemp’s Ridley, which was the variety recently spotted on Port A’s Tony Amos Beach, in an incident of beautiful irony. Amos dedicated much of his career as an ocean Port A emergency responders protect a Kemp’s Ridley nesting site on Tony Amos Beach.