Bonefish & Tarpon Journal - Fall 2022

ROGER WATERS INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM

JOURNAL BONEFISH&TARPON

CONSERVATION THROUGH SCIENCE • FALL 2022

NEW FRAMES

MADE FROM

Editorial Board

Dr. Aaron Adams, Monte Burke, Sarah Cart, Bill Horn, Jim McDuffie, Carl Navarre, T. Edward Nickens

Publication Team

Publishers: Carl Navarre, Jim McDuffie

Editor: Nick Roberts

Layout and Design: Scott Morrison, Morrison Creative Company

Contributors

Michael Adno

Monte Burke

Ty Hibbs

Chris Hunt

Tom Keer

Alexandra Marvar

T. Edward Nickens

Chris Santella

Photography

Dr. Aaron Adams

Rick Bannerot

Dr. Ben Binder

Tyler Bowman

Nick Castillo

Marty Dashiell

Zaria Dean

Dan Diez

Greg Dini

Cody Eggenberger

Pat Ford

Kirk Gastrich

Kevin Grubb

Justin Lewis

Tommy Locke

Dr. Jiangang Luo

David Mangum

Brendan McCarthy

Jess McGlothlin

Mill House Podcast

T. Edward Nickens

Nick Roberts

Scott Sinclair

Nick Shirghio

Turneffe Flats

Ian Wilson

Chris Zajac Cover

Permit cross a seagrass flat in the Florida Keys.

Photo: Tyler Bowman

Bonefish & Tarpon Journal

2937 SW 27th Avenue Suite 203

Miami, FL 33133

(786) 618-9479

BTT’s Mission

To conserve and restore bonefish, tarpon and permit fisheries and habitats through research, stewardship, education and advocacy.

Board of Directors Officers

Carl Navarre, Chairman of the Board, Islamorada, Florida

Bill Horn, Vice Chairman of the Board, Marathon, Florida

Jim McDuffie, President and CEO, Miami, Florida

Evan Carruthers, Treasurer, Maple Plain, Minnesota

John D. Johns, Secretary, Birmingham, Alabama

Tom Davidson, Founding Chairman Emeritus, Key Largo, Florida

Harold Brewer, Chairman Emeritus, Key Largo, Florida

Russ Fisher, Founding Vice Chairman Emeritus, Key Largo, Florida

Jeff Harkavy, Founding Member and Circle of Honor Chair, Coral Springs, Florida

John Abplanalp

Stamford, Connecticut

Rich Andrews

Denver, Colorado

Stu Apte

Tavernier, Florida

Rodney Barreto

Coral Gables, Florida

Dan Berger

Alexandria, Virginia

Adolphus A. Busch IV

Ofallon, Missouri

Sarah Cart

Key Largo, Florida

John Davidson

Atlanta, Georgia

Advisory Council

Randolph Bias, Austin, Texas

Charles Causey, Islamorada, Florida

Don Causey, Miami, Florida

Scott Deal, Ft. Pierce, Florida

Paul Dixon, East Hampton, New York

Chris Dorsey, Littleton, Colorado

Chico Fernandez, Miami, Florida

Mike Fitzgerald, Wexford, Pennsylvania

Pat Ford, Miami, Florida

Christopher Jordan, McLean, Virginia

Bill Klyn, Jackson, Wyoming

Clint Packo, Littleton, Colorado

Jack Payne, Gainesville, Florida

Upcoming Events

11th Annual NYC Dinner & Awards Ceremony

October 6, 2022

The University Club New York, NY

Greg Fay Bozeman, Montana

Dr. Tom Frazer

Tampa, Florida

Doug Kilpatrick

Summerland, Florida

Jerry Klauer

New York, New York

Thorpe McKenzie

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Wayne Meland

Naples, Florida

Ambrose Monell

New York, New York

Sandy Moret

Islamorada, Florida

John Newman

Covington, Louisiana

David Nichols

York Harbor, Maine

Al Perkinson

New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Jay Robertson

Islamorada, Florida

Rick Ruoff

Willow Creek, Montana

Casey Sheahan

Bozeman, Montana

Adelaide Skoglund

Key Largo, Florida

Noah Valenstein

Tallahassee, Florida

Steve Reynolds, Memphis, Tennessee

Ken Wright, Winter Park, Florida

Honorary Trustees

Marty Arostegui, Coral Gables, Florida

Bret Boston, Alpharetta, Georgia

Betsy Bullard, Tavernier, Florida

Yvon Chouinard, Ventura, California

Matt Connolly, Hingham, Massachusetts

Marshall Field, Hobe Sound, Florida

Guy Harvey, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Steve Huff, Chokoloskee, Florida

James Jameson, Del Mar, California

Michael Keaton, Los Angeles, CA / MT

Rob Kramer, Dania Beach, Florida

Huey Lewis, Stevensville, Montana

Davis Love III, Hilton Head, South Carolina

George Matthews, West Palm Beach, Florida

Tom McGuane, Livingston, Montana

Andy Mill, Aspen, Colorado

John Moritz, Boulder, Colorado

Johnny Morris, Springfield, Missouri

Jack Nicklaus, Columbus, Ohio

Flip Pallot, Titusville, Florida

Paul Tudor Jones, Greenwich, Connecticut

Bill Tyne, London, United Kingdom

Joan Wulff, Lew Beach, New York

7th International Science Symposium

November 4-5, 2022

PGA National Resort

Palm Beach Gardens, FL

10th Annual Keys Dinner & Circle of Honor Inductions

April 20, 2023

Cheeca Lodge & Spa

Islamorada, FL

Features

16 Cracking the Tarpon Code

BTT’s five-year Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project reveals new insights into tarpon movement and habitat use, information now being applied to conservation. T. Edward Nickens

28 Wish You Were Here

Legendary musician Roger Waters finds thrills and solace on the flats. Monte Burke

38 7th International Science Symposium & Flats Expo

The triennial event brings together stakeholders from across the world of flats fishing to celebrate the resource and advance conservation. Alexandra Marvar

46 Guiding the Way

BTT honors pioneering guides and anglers for their many contributions to flats fishery conservation. Michael Adno

52 The Big Picture

BTT is working to ensure a healthy future for the flats fishery by conserving and restoring vital nursery habitat in Florida and beyond. Chris Hunt

68 The Family Business

The Denkerts and Blacks have made their mark on the Keys fishery and contributed to conservation. T. Edward Nickens

Anglers explore the flats of Belize’s Cayo Rosario. Photo: Jess McGlothlin

Setting the Hook

From the Chairman and the President

With those words, Tom Davidson issued the first chairman’s letter from Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited, which included a report on the fledgling organization’s first bonefish tagging project as well as plans for new research into tarpon movements.

Over the past quarter century, BTT has been on a fascinating journey to learn about flats species and apply the resulting knowledge in ways that benefit the flats fishery. And the results have been impressive, from fishery management improvements to conservation efforts aimed at habitat and water quality. Shining examples of the latter include restored juvenile tarpon habitats in Florida, mangrove restoration in the Bahamas, and ongoing advocacy in support of America’s Everglades—all guided by science.

This is progress that should rightfully instill pride in what we have accomplished with the angling community, collaborating scientists, resource managers, and the steadfast support of our members and corporate sponsors. Yet, what happens next is usually the most important part of any historic timeline.

The still-emerging arch of science and conservation at BTT is positioning us well for the challenges ahead. In the pages that follow, you will read about the exciting discovery of a bonefish pre-spawning aggregation in the Florida Keys, which our team will document in the upcoming season. In Chris Santella’s article, we learn that research at the site will help answer questions about the nature of bonefish spawning—answers that will be invaluable to conserving the species locally. Similarly, Tom Keer’s excellent piece on spawning permit at Western Dry Rocks explains BTT’s leadership role in monitoring the most important permit spawning site in the Florida Keys. Data collected at the site may prove decisive as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission evaluates the effectiveness of a spawning season closure enacted in the spring of 2021.

We have also seen over the years how the loss of habitat and changes in water quality can affect fisheries at specific locations and at scale. As a result, these have become priorities for our science and conservation efforts. Earlier this year, BTT announced the sobering results of a new study that identified widespread pharmaceutical contamination in Florida bonefish—a failure of

Carl Navarre, Chairman

Jim McDuffie, President

our wastewater infrastructure to sufficiently remove medications from human waste. In this issue, Alex Marvar provides an update on progress in the Florida Keys following years of investment to upgrade sewage infrastructure.

Some of the most interesting research results over the past 25 years point to the geographical connections across the flats fishery—connections that are due to the mixing that occurs in migrations and spawning. For those reasons, it remains important for us to keep an eye over the horizon. BTT is engaging with resource managers and stakeholders in the Bahamas, Belize, Mexico, Cuba and other countries, and one project falls under the spotlight in this edition of the Journal. Threats to Belizean flats continue to emerge, including the loss or degradation of habitats. As this issue goes to press, BTT is actively engaged in opposing ill-advised development, including over-water structures, in some of the most sensitive areas of Belize.

It’s fitting that the theme of BTT’s 7th International Science Symposium & Flats Expo this November is Conservation Connections. As shared in these pages, the triennial event will bring together many of the marine scientists, resource managers, fishing guides and industry representatives who have supported and collaborated with BTT since our early days to advance flats fishery conservation in the Southeastern US, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. The 2022 program features science presentations and discussion panels on the most pressing research and conservation topics, including the urgent need to improve water quality and wastewater treatment infrastructure in Florida, and to protect and restore threatened habitats throughout the range of bonefish, tarpon, and permit in this hemisphere.

At the Symposium & Flats Expo, we’ll also commemorate our Silver Anniversary. Just as Tom Davidson wrote 25 years ago, we are elated by the outpouring of support for BTT’s mission, and we thank you for it! Our fishery is better today thanks to the foresight of our founders, the support of our members, and the tireless contributions to the mission by people such as our 2022 Circle of Honor award recipients—Paul Dixon, Andy Mill, Sandy Moret, Matt Connolly, Chico Fernandez and Andy Danylchuk. We thank you all for your enduring commitment to the cause.

“We are elated by the outpouring of support to date for Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited and its mission to understand, nurture and enhance a healthy bonefish and tarpon fishery.”

Ambassador David Mangum

Thorpe McKenzie and Dr. Thomas Frazer Join BTT Board of Directors

Business leader Thorpe McKenzie and Dr. Thomas Frazer, Dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida, have been elected to the Board of Directors of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.

“We are honored to welcome Thorpe and Tom to our Board of Directors,” said Jim McDuffie, BTT President and CEO. “Their knowledge and leadership will greatly benefit our organization as we pursue our mission to conserve bonefish, tarpon, and permit, and the habitats that support the flats fishery.”

A native of Lookout Mountain, NC, McKenzie attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Wharton School of Business. Upon graduation, he joined Kidder, Peabody & Company in New York and became an assistant to Julian H. Robertson, Jr. In 1980, Robertson and McKenzie co-founded the well-known

hedge fund, TIGER. McKenzie went on to co-found Pointer Management, LLC in 1990, and remains a Senior Advisor to the firm.

An avid angler and hunter, McKenzie has provided generous support and leadership to major conservation initiatives and organizations, including serving on the boards of the Atlantic Salmon Federation and Tall Timbers Research Station as well as supporting innovative bonefish spawning research led BTT.

Dr. Frazer was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis as Florida’s first Chief Science Officer in 2019, a post he held for two years. Today, he is a professor and Dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Prior to joining the DeSantis Administration, he served in several roles at the University of Florida, including Director of the School of Natural Resources and Environment, Acting Director of the Water Institute,

Associate Director of the School of Forest Resources and Conservation, and lead faculty member for the Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Program. He is also past Chair and a current member of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

Dr. Frazer earned his bachelor’s degree in marine fisheries from Humboldt State University, his master’s degree in fisheries and aquatic sciences from the University of Florida, and his Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of California Santa Barbara. His research over the years has addressed topics pertaining to water quantity and quality, nutrient dynamics, fish population dynamics, and ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems, among others. He has conducted field research in both freshwater and marine systems around the globe and is familiar with a range of environmental and natural resource issues.

Thorpe McKenzie introduces honoree Julian Robertson, Jr. at BTT’s 8th Annual NYC Dinner & Awards Ceremony. Photo: Brendan McCarthy

Dr. Thomas Frazer, Dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida.

Tippets

Short Takes on Important Topics

BONEFISH HANDLING CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES

In collaboration with leading fishing guides and lodges, BTT launched a social media campaign in the spring of 2022 to educate anglers on the optimal way to handle bonefish to help increase survival rates and conserve healthy populations. The techniques were developed in concert with some of the top guides in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas, with the goal of making them standard practice for anglers, guides, and tournaments in order to ensure healthy bonefish stocks for generations to come. The campaign provided education on how to properly use a dehooking device to reduce handling of bonefish, and BTTbranded dehookers were distributed to lodges, fly shops, and guides throughout Florida, the Bahamas, Belize and Mexico.

BTT worked closely with Lower Keys Fishing Guides Association and the Florida Keys Fishing Guide Association to develop a science-based stepwise process that anglers and guides can follow to help ensure a healthy release for their catch. “The bonefish fishery is economically and culturally important,” said BTT Florida Keys Initiative Manager Dr. Ross Boucek, “but the fishery can only be sustainable if most fish survive catch and release.”

The campaign reached nearly 500,000 people on social media and tallied 3 million impressions. The angling community and leading industry publications championed the new bonefish handing recommendations, broadening the campaign’s reach and impact. BTT wishes to thank Johnny Johns, Captain Doug Kilpatrick, Captain Eric Herstedt, the Lower Keys Fishing Guides Association, the Florida Keys Fishing Guide Association, Markham Yard, the Herman Lucerne Memorial Foundation, Headwake Media, Danco, and Arc Dehookers. Scan the QR code at right to view the bonefish handling recommendations and campaign video.

BTT ADVOCATES FOR FISHERY INTERESTS

BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie joined industry leaders from recreational fishing, boating and conservation in May to advocate for clean water, healthy habitats, and effective fisheries management in Washington, D.C.

MENHADEN MANAGEMENT REFORM NEEDED

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has prioritized menhaden management reform, recognizing the important role of these forage fish in healthy ecosystems. In the Gulf, BTT is working with our conservation partners to establish meaningful regulations for commercial menhaden management in Louisiana, where most of the harvest occurs. This past legislative session we supported HB 1033, sponsored by Representative Joe Orgeron, that would have required more detailed commercial menhaden harvest reporting and set a reasonable Annual Catch Limit in Louisiana waters. We made significant gains this year with this legislation passing the Louisiana House, and other legislation that improved commercial menhaden reporting requirements was signed into law in June 2022. BTT will continue to push for additional reforms to ensure abundant Gulf menhaden are available to support sportfish populations.

Menhaden are critically important forage fish.

BTT AWARDS GRANT TO MIAMI WATERKEEPER

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has awarded a grant of $44,000 to Miami Waterkeeper (MWK) to help fund an ongoing study of nutrients and bacteria in Biscayne Bay. BTT joins with partners Florida International University, University of Miami, NOAA, EPA, and Beta Analytic in supporting the MWK-led project.

“Biscayne Bay is a national treasure and vital local resource facing ongoing environmental threats,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “These shallow waters have played an important role in the history of flats fishing and remain an integral part of Florida’s multi-billion-dollar recreational fishery. We value our partnership with Miami Waterkeeper and are pleased to support this important project examining the levels and possible land-based sources of nitrates and bacteria.”

This project seeks to understand the influence that canal discharges and land-based sources of pollution have on Biscayne Bay. Researchers will examine levels of bacteria and nutrients, using novel approaches to track the source of these pollutants. Ultimately, the study seeks to understand the conditions that led to the unprecedented fish kill in northern Biscayne Bay in August 2020, when more than 27,000 fish suddenly suffocated in just a few days. Understanding these conditions will enable Miami Waterkeeper to develop data-driven recommendations for water management practices that will improve water quality, restore essential habitats, and create a sustainable environment for the fish and other marine life that depend on them.

FLATS FISHING COMMUNITY MOURNS THE LOSS OF CAPTAIN JOE GONZALEZ

BTT is deeply saddened by the loss of renowned guide, Captain Joe Gonzalez, a pillar of South Florida’s tight-knit fishing community and a mentor and friend to many. A Florida native, Joe began fishing his home waters at a young age, exploring the Florida Keys and the Bahamas during his summer breaks. He went to guide professionally for more than 30 years in the Florida Keys, Everglades National Park, and Biscayne Bay, where he gained acclaim for his ability to put clients on large bonefish and permit. Known for his friendly demeanor, sense of humor, and fishing prowess, Joe had a positive impact on every angler fortunate enough to share a day with him on his skiff.

A master of his craft and consummate teacher, Joe shared his fishing knowledge as a regular seminar presenter and taught in a variety of venues including the IGFA and Saltwater Sportman’s Seminar Series. He made numerous television appearances, starring on Flats Class TV with CA Richardson, Bass2Bills with Peter Miller, Guiding Flow with Benny Blanco, and Sportsman’s Adventures with Rick Murphy, among many others. In 2014, Joe was honored with the Jose Wejebe Professional Guide Award.

Joe was a steward of the waters he fished and committed to conserving the flats fishery. He tagged over 1,300 bonefish, more than any other guide on record, and was instrumental in the success of BTT’s Project Permit, tagging more than 130 fish. He was also a vocal advocate for protecting and conserving Biscayne Bay for future generations of guides and anglers. Joe was a regular participant in BTT’s International Science Symposium, where he served on the Bonefish Panel alongside fellow guides, anglers, and scientists. We are grateful to Joe for his many contributions to flats fishery conservation, and for the mentorship he provided to many anglers and guides throughout the course of his storied career. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

A fish kill in Biscayne Bay in 2020.

Photo: Nick Castillo / Cody Eggenberger

Captain Joe Gonzalez

25 Years of conservation

Concerned about bonefish decline in the Florida Keys, Tom Davidson and a small band of Founding Members commit funds to research bonefish behavior and begin a tagging program.

1997 2000 2008 2009

Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited (BTU) holds its first meeting with 70 founding members. New projects are launched, including tarpon satellite tagging to gather migration pattern information along with further bonefish tagging to understand size, growth, and range of movement.

BTU hosts its first Bonefish and Tarpon Research Symposium, sponsored by Bass Pro Shops and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), which brings together 20 collaborating scientists.

Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited becomes Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and welcomes Matt Connelly to the board as President.

BTT broadens its geographic scope, expanding programs to the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba and Mexico. A new bonefish dart-tagging program in the Bahamas begins while BTT also successfully advocates for catch-and-release protections for bonefish, tarpon, and permit in Belize.

Standing L – R:  Joel Shepherd, Billy Pate, Raleigh Werking, Stu Apte, Jeff Storm Harkavy, Doug Hannon, Robert Humston, Chico Fernandez, Jack Curlett Seated L – R:  George Hommell, Jeff Wilson, Tom Davidson

A dart-tagged bonefish released near the East End of Grand Bahama.

Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

Early BTT projects included satellite tagging to learn more about seasonal migration patterns.

Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

2010 2011 2012

With BTT’s input and the support of anglers appearing in a series of public meetings, FWC establishes the Special Permit Zone and separates permit and pompano in fishery management. Costa Sunglasses sponsors the new Project Permit.

Collaborating with FWC and the angling community, BTT helps to establish catch-and-release regulations for tarpon and bonefish in Florida.

2013 2014 2015

BTT holds its first NYC Dinner and Award Ceremony, where Lefty Kreh and Tom Brokaw are honored for their contributions to flats fishery conservation.

BTT maps critical flats fishing areas in the Florida Keys that help to guide management strategies of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Everglades National Park.

By providing data on bonefish spawning sites and home ranges, BTT plays an important role in securing the establishment of five new national parks in the Bahamas, and expanding a sixth.

BTT launches the collaborative Juvenile Tarpon Habitat Initiative to identify, protect and restore juvenile tarpon habitat in Florida.

Jim McDuffie is named BTT’s first Executive Director, later President and CEO.

Pirates of the Flats, which later becomes Buccaneers & Bones, debuts on television and airs for 8 seasons, exposing new audiences to BTT’s mission and work.

A tarpon caught and released in the Florida Keys. Photo: Pat Ford

The cast and crew of Pirates of the Flats, which became Bucanneers & Bones. Photo: Dorsey Pictures

Honorees Lefty Kreh and Tom Brokaw.

Photo: Rick Bannerot

BTT collaborating scientist Dr. Jake Brownscombe releases an acoustically tagged permit in the Florida Keys.

Photo: Jordan Carter

25 Years of conservation

With a grant of $1.5 million from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), BTT undertakes the largest study ever commissioned in bonefish reproductive science. In the same year, and with funding from Maverick Boat Group, BTT launches the Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project—a five-year study that will rewrite the book of what’s known about tarpon movements and habitat uses.

As a founding member of the Now or Neverglades (NoN) coalition, BTT advocates for Senate Bill 10, which authorizes the southern reservoir to store, filter and move water south to Florida Bay. BTT meets with legislators, mobilizes support from its members, and contributes time, effort and funds to the coalition. That November, BTT hosts its 6th International Science Symposium & Flats Expo, which is a now a major event attracting 1,000 participants.

Following Hurricane Irma, BTT raises more than $500,000 to assist Keys guides in partnership with the Guides Trust Foundation.

Data from BTT’s Project Permit drives an extension of the spawning season closure in Florida’s Special Permit Zone to include the month of April.

BTT restores August Creek in East Grand Bahama—the first such project by the organization and a demonstration site that will guide future creek restorations.

In collaboration with Southwest Florida Water Management District and other partners, BTT completes its first tarpon nursery habitat restoration project at Coral Creek Preserve in Southwest Florida, designing the restoration and conducting preand post-restoration monitoring.

A long running project to genetically analyze thousands of bonefish fin clips concludes, providing scientific evidence of bonefish population connectivity across the Caribbean.

With Now or Neverglades partners, BTT secures federal authorization of the Everglades Reservoir to provide 240,000 acres of dynamic water storage, reducing harmful discharges and sending an average of 370,000 acre-feet of clean freshwater south from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades and Florida Bay.

The August Creek restoration project removed a decadesold causeway that had blocked tidal flow and fish passage.

Photo: Nick Roberts

A juvenile tarpon is released after being tagged as part of the Coral Creek habitat restoration project in Southwest Florida. Photo: John Rohan

A three-day old bonefish larvae spawned at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute as part of the Bonefish Reproduction Research Project. Photo: Dr. Jon Shenker

2016 2017 2018

25 Years of conservation

BTT documents the first complete track of a bonefish spawning aggregation, logging a dive to a depth of 450 feet—a first not only for bonefish, but a first for science, by recording a shallow water species diving to 13 times the atmospheric pressure the fish experience on the flats to spawn.

BTT collaborates with partners to raises $400,000 to assist Bahamian guides and lodges in the wake of Category 5 Hurricane Dorian, the worst natural disaster in Bahamas history.

BTT maps 274 juvenile tarpon habitat locations from information submitted by anglers. Scientists groundtruth sites in 11 Florida counties, finding that 62 percent of reported nursery habitats have some level of degradation requiring conservation action.

Scientists achieve the world’s first spawn of captive bonefish, producing new knowledge that will greatly enhance efforts to conserve bonefish in the wild.

With data from its Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project, BTT successfully advocates for a new regulation in North Carolina making tarpon catch-and-release in state waters.

BTT launches the Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project to plant 100,000 mangroves in a 69-square-mile area impacted by Hurricane Dorian, making it the largest effort of its kind in Bahamas history.

Joining with partners, BTT advocates for Federal support of coastal and estuarine systems, sustained Everglades restoration, and passage of the 2020 Water Resources Development Act, turning back efforts to slow EAA Reservoir construction and allow interference by the sugar industry in Lake Okeechobee management.

BTT opposes unwise coastal development in Belize, oil drilling in the Bahamas, and tarpon kill tournaments in the US.

200 tarpon have been outfitted with acoustic tags as part of BTT's Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project. Photo: Silver Kings

To date, more than 20,000 mangroves have been planted in the Bahamas by BTT and partners. Photo: Nick Roberts

A bonefish pre-spawning aggregation (PSA) in the Bahamas. Photo: Robbie Roemer

25 Years of conservation

2022 2022 2021

As a capstone achievement in Project Permit, BTT successfully advocates for a seasonal closure of Western Dry Rocks, identified by BTT scientists as the most important spawning site for flats permit in the Lower Florida Keys. Subsequent research identified unsustainable loss of angled permit at the site. The closure spans the months of April through July, the heart of spawning season for permit and mutton snapper.

2021

BTT completes tagging in the Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project with 200 transmitters. To date, BTT researchers have recorded more than 500,000 tarpon track detections across 7 states—valuable information that will help improve fishery management and conserve habitat.

BTT completes an economic impact assessment of Mexico’s flats fishery, determining that the resource generates $55.9 million (USD) annually and supports more than 1,600 jobs. The study will help make the case for improved fishery management along Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

BTT supports Everglades restoration and the recommendation by Governor DeSantis to spend $660 million in the next budget to continue critical projects.

BTT is awarded a $250,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which is matched by funding from the State of Florida, to begin planning two coastal habitat restoration projects in Rookery Bay on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

A permit spawning aggregation in the Florida Keys. Photo: Dr. Jiangang Luo

A tarpon tagged with an acoustic transmitter before release, Photo: Wyler Gins

Juvenile fish habitat in the vicinity of Shell Island Road that will benefit from the restoration project.

Photo: Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve

25 Years of conservation

A three-year study by BTT and Florida International University (FIU) discovers pharmaceutical contaminants in the blood and other tissues of bonefish in Biscayne Bay and across the Florida Keys. The findings underscore the urgent need for Florida to expand and modernize wastewater treatment facilities and sewage infrastructure statewide. Results are announced in multiple venues in Tallahassee.

In collaboration with leading fishing guides and lodges, BTT launches a campaign to educate anglers on the optimal way to handle bonefish to help increase survival rates and conserve healthy populations.

The landmark bonefish reproduction study funded by NFWF and members concludes. Volumes of new knowledge are acquired on bonefish spawning behavior and reproduction as well as the early stages of larval development.

BTT commits $600,000 to fund a multi-year monitoring program at Western Dry Rocks and three other critical permit spawning sites in the Lower Florida Keys over the next three years. The project will ensure that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has sufficient data for evaluating the effectiveness of the April-July permit spawning season closure enacted in 2021.

As part of the bonefish catch-and-release campaign, BTT-branded dehookers were sent to leading guides, fly shops, and lodges in Florida, the Bahamas, Belize, and Mexico.

A permit tagged with an acoustic transmitter in the Florida Keys as part of Project Permit. Photo: Dr. Jake Brownscombe

A Content Keys bonefish ready for release. Photo Dr. Aaron Adams

cracking the

BTT’s five-year Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project reveals new insights into tarpon movement and habitat use, information now being applied to conservation.

BY T. EDWARD NICKENS

Iis the leap that fixes the fish in time and place, and inscribes it deep into memory. A jumping tarpon that clears the water, gills flared and giant mouth agape, breaching the underwater world to thrash and flail in the air above, is the seminal image of tarpon fishing. Silhouetted against water and sky, the fish, for the moment, belongs to neither, but is tethered instead to an angler whose mind will never let go of this particular moment, and this particular place.

Which is in stark contrast to recent findings about Atlantic tarpon. We’re learning just how highly mobile yet interconnected

populations of tarpon are across the South. They leave an incredible ecological footprint across a vast region. The fish connect the Gulf of Mexico to the Florida Keys, to the South Carolina Lowcountry and North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound. Some are pushing farther north than many believed, while remaining quite loyal to favorite haunts and habitats. And this new knowledge is leading to new ideas about how to conserve tarpon in every aquatic corner where they are found.

The outlines of this effort have been reported: Between 2016 and 2021, BTT deployed nearly 100 acoustic receivers in the

tarpon code

Florida Keys, a network that piggybacked on an existing array of acoustic receivers managed by other researchers and agencies along the greater southeastern U.S. coastline. Guides and anglers helped tagged 200 Atlantic tarpon, which to date have produced a half-million detections. And while the official project has ended, more than 40 tarpon have transmitters whose batteries should last into 2026. All told, it’s the largest, and longest, data set of Atlantic tarpon in history.

In addition to new understanding, the research has honed the ability of scientists and resource managers to fine-tune their

efforts. Bill Horn, vice chairman of the board of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, recalls when one guide told him that BTT’s tarpon research was akin to an airplane lumbering down the runway. A lot of movement, but no liftoff. “Now we know so much more than we did 10 or 20 years ago,” Horn insists, “which means we can ask very precise questions that will lead to detailed management options.”

The more challenging news: There will be tough choices ahead for regulatory agencies. And for sure, there are hard decisions to be made by every tarpon guide and every angler with a tarpon in his or her sights. Each of these fish is critical to the overall population

A loose daisy chain circles on a Keys flat. Photo: Marty Dashiell

of tarpon. And with their numbers sliding, every angler with a tarpon on the line has a role to play in making sure the Silver King has a future as vital and vibrant as its storied past.

So, after six years of intensive, exhaustive—and exhausting— study, here is an accounting of what’s been learned, what needs to be explored, and what stands in the way of ensuring a healthy tarpon fishery for the next generations.

In many areas, tarpon movements are highly repeatable. Fish in the Keys can return to the same places year after year, on similar days and tides. What does this kind of location fidelity say about conservation challenges and opportunities?

Guides, anglers, and scientists have long speculated that some tarpon might return to the same areas year after year. Horn tells the story of his multiple encounters with a large, bright-gold tarpon anglers dubbed “Goldie.”

“She looked like a giant goldfish,” he says, and he’s seen her four or five times over the years. Horn has spotted Goldie off Long Key and Duck Key, most often within a few days of April 29. It’s a phenomenon that’s not restricted to the Keys. In Apalachee Bay, Captain David Mangum keeps a detailed daily fishing journal, and he’s spotted the same albino tarpon in nine different years, in the same area, and generally within the same time period. He’s also seen the same piebald tarpon a number of times, and twice caught a tarpon “that was missing part of its face,” he describes. These studies are the first to back up what have largely been anecdotal claims. The significant fidelity of some tarpon returning to the same area at the same time was a surprise. People have speculated about that, but now the science backs up what anglers and guides have long reported.

Which is fascinating, but what does it mean?

The studies show that many tarpon move long distances, across thousands of miles from southern spawning areas in the Keys to as far away as the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf and Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic. Horn wonders if it suggests something about overall tarpon numbers. If the same fish are

caught repeatedly in the same areas, “then maybe the population is not as large as we’d like it to be,” he says. “We need to know how much recruitment is coming into these populations. Are we fishing a diminishing number of fish?”

This site fidelity also increases the importance of increasing the use of best handling practices to make sure that more tarpon survive after being caught and released. Losing tarpon from a favorite fishing spot will impact the fishing in that spot because it’s likely that there is a regular group of fish that supports the local fishery.

Tarpon are moving farther north, and staying there longer, than previously documented scientifically. That opens up expanded fisheries for waters in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and even the Chesapeake Bay region. How do we manage those fisheries with conservation in mind?

Captain Newman Weaver has been guiding out of Georgetown, South Carolina for 17 years, chasing redfish, trout, and, increasingly, tarpon, in the waters of Winyah Bay. He’s convinced there are tarpon in the Lowcountry all year long. In the winter, he sees them on his side sonar, hovering over springs. On full moons in July, he’s spotted tarpon pushing far upriver and deep into the region’s historic ricefield impoundments. “I see them way up the Pee Dee, Waccamaw, and Black rivers,” he says. “They’re not in giant spawning aggregates like you see in Florida, but it’s still pretty cool to see 25 males chasing three or four females.”

But Winyah Bay’s tarpon are a secret no longer. A few years ago, Weaver might only come across a single other boat in a day of tarpon fishing. Now it’s not unusual to see a dozen. “And I’ve noticed a difference in the fish,” he says. “They were used to being hit hard in Florida, and this part of the coast was a sanctuary. If something looked edible, they ate it. But these are smart fish. They hear a boat and they think: Let’s calm down. Let’s just not eat the next thing that comes by our face. It’s getting tougher.”

And it’s not just South Carolina that could be seeing an

A 45-pound tarpon dubbed “Helios” by tag sponsor Orvis is released in the Lower Keys. Photo: Lenny Leonard

increase in tarpon activity. In North Carolina, reports Captain Tom Roller, “we’re seeing numbers that we haven’t seen in 20 years. There’s a stunning number of tarpon in the state right now.”

Like the Palmetto State’s tarpon, the silver kings of North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound and the huge tidal Neuse River estuary can be super tricky to catch. Roller figures a lack of strong tidal current in many sections keeps the bite subtle, and the sheer vastness of the state’s estuaries—seven sounds cover some 2,000,000 acres of water—spreads the tarpon out over the landscape.

But targeting these fish has definitely grown in popularity, leading North Carolina in February 2020 to adopt a rule making tarpon a catch-and-release fishery. BTT lobbied hard for the rule change, and it didn’t come easily. The final vote by the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission was 5 to 4. That tight call underscores the importance of introducing to these more northerly regions the culture and ethos of better handling of tarpon, and the value of catch-and-release regulations and rules that disallow the removal of adult tarpon from the water.

BTT collaborating scientist Dr. Lucas Griffin implants an acoustic tag in a tarpon. Photo: David Mangum

BTT Florida Keys Initiative Manager Dr. Ross Boucek retrieves an acoustic receiver. Once topside data revealing tag detections will be downloaded to a laptop.

Photo: Ian Wilson

BTT recently made headway by partnering with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on an educational campaign to raise awareness among anglers and guides about science-based best handling practices designed to reduce tarpon mortality.

The other takeaway of the study’s long-range movement findings is that tarpon management isn’t constrained by state boundaries. “Tarpon are not Florida’s fish, or North Carolina’s fish, or South Carolina’s fish,” Weaver says. “They’re passing through all of those habitats. As hard as it is for me, as a guide, to admit it, the constant pressure isn’t helping.”

What will help is to use this new understanding to more deeply involve these other states in tarpon management. Since many tarpon feed heavily on menhaden during the summer months, joining efforts with other conservation organizations will be valuable. “When we scientifically documented that these fish are going to northern estuaries like the Chesapeake Bay and Pamlico Sound, where there are big concentrations of menhaden at that time,” explains Horn, “our collaboration with anglers in northern fisheries, like striped bass, increased.”

presents intriguing possibilities. Mid-sized tarpon can be even more impacted by environmental changes and habitat degradation than large tarpon. Understanding how they relate and interact with adults and challenges due to environmental changes could be a critical missing piece of their ecology, and is important to conservation efforts.

“By putting tags in fish as small as 35 and 40 pounds,” says Horn, “we’re learning that they sometimes travel with the big boys and big girls.” Long considered resident fish, it’s possible that subadults are migrating with larger fish because they may spawn at younger ages or sizes than previously thought, which could have major ramifications if they are contributing to the overall spawning pool. “Right now,” explains Horn, “we make educated guesses at the age of sexual maturity for tarpon. But this is a great example of how this research is enabling us to ask ever more specific questions. These may just be precocious fish that are migrating with the larger fish and not spawning. But the data are telling us that this is a question that we need to address.”

It didn’t take long for the acoustic telemetry program to ping a few surprises back to researchers. The second tarpon to receive a tag was a 45-pound fish caught on a live crab in late May in the Lower Keys. About a month later, the tarpon, dubbed “Helios,” was the first tagged fish to be detected by an acoustic array. It had moved north nearly 400 miles, to Port Orange, Florida. And then Helios kept going, eventually making it to North Carolina.

Until recently, most scientists believed that only adult, sexually mature tarpon made such long-range migrations. But this project involved tracking efforts of smaller fish than in the past, and

The acoustic telemetry study showed that great hammerhead and bull sharks gathered in specific locations where tarpon tended to concentrate, not only at popular fishing areas but also at prespawning aggregation sites. At the Bahia Honda Bridge and around Boca Grande, says Mangum, “the sharks are like bears in garbage cans. They don’t even mess with the free-swimming tarpon. They just wait for the tarpon to get hooked and released.” Mangum says that large losses to sharks in a pre-spawning aggregation area are especially concerning. Not to mention the fact that such large Seine nets are used to collect bonefish prey from the flats to sample for pharmaceuticals. Photo: Ian Wilson

Tarpon as small as 50 pounds were found to be swimming in what were previously thought of as adult migrations. How does that change the game in terms of protecting habitat?

In certain places, at certain times, hooked tarpon and tarpon that are caught and released are getting hammered by sharks—with increasing concern that the predation is on a level that is affecting tarpon population numbers.

A string of migrating tarpon in the Florida Keys. Photo: Marty Dashiell

losses of mature adults can be a big hit to the population—tarpon are slow growing and late to mature, so it takes a long time for the population to recover from declines.

Mitigating the losses of large numbers of adult tarpon could mean further study on emerging shark deterrent technologies, education on the best ways to handle caught tarpon, proposals for using heavier tackle, and education on angler behavior when sharks appear while anglers are fishing for tarpon. And it may be that site-specific and time-specific closures are called for, as was the case with permit fishing at Western Dry Rocks in the Lower Keys. There, in a separate earlier project, research showed that an average of 40 percent of permit hooked on their spawning aggregation in the Western Dry Rocks were killed by sharks before they made it to the boat. In contrast, sharks eating hooked permit on the flats or other non-aggregation sites is extremely rare.

The recent closure of the area to permit fishing during the spawn shows that many anglers are willing to stand up and do the right thing. That’s a heartening reality, as science begins to point the way towards better tarpon conservation in every stretch of water they inhabit.

An award-winning author and journalist, T. Edward Nickens is editor-at-large of Field & Stream and a contributing editor for Garden & Gun and Audubon magazine.

The Effects of Red Tide

To get a better understanding of how red tide impacts tarpon, Dr. Lucas Griffin, a BTT collaborating scientist and post-doctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, led an effort that took a mixed-method approach: Researchers combined fish kill data, red tide monitoring data, acoustic telemetry, angler catch logs, and what is known as LEK, or Local Environmental Knowledge. That latter category mostly involved picking the brains of longtime tarpon guides.

The result is a good news/bad news dynamic. Teasing out data layers presented a scenario in which red tide appears to affect tarpon behavior, but hasn’t in the past resulted in large mortality events. While there are instances of tarpon dying due to red tide, most of the time tarpon simply moved away from the blooms, but as the blooms become more frequent and widespread, tarpon mortalities may increase. One of the problems, explains JoEllen Wilson, BTT’s Juvenile Tarpon Habitat Program Manager and a co-author of the study, is what happens when tarpon are forced off the migratory routes they have followed for millennia. “If they’re not on their traditional spawning grounds,” says Wilson, “then they are probably not together somewhere else for spawning.” This scenario may become more common—red tides didn’t use to occur during tarpon spawning season, but red tides during spawning season are becoming more and more frequent.

Another potential impact is the effects of red tide on tarpon prey items, from crabs and shrimp to baitfish. When red tide kills large numbers of prey, tarpon have to move to find nourishment, and they may also ingest fish that have themselves been exposed to the toxic algae. As Captain Scott Moore says “If the grocery is empty, the tarpon are going to have to go somewhere else for food.”

At the moment, it isn’t clear where tarpon go in order to escape large-scale red tides. But no matter the Plan B, it’s likely not a positive situation. “On the plus side, we don’t have significant direct mortality yet,” says Wilson. “However, if the tarpon can’t do what they go to the spawning grounds to do, the impacts might be just as bad.”

An approximately 140-pound tarpon photographed by Capt. Tommy Locke outside Cayo Costa, FL during a red tide event in 2018.

The Silver King. Photo: David Mangum

A Billion-Dollar Water Infrastructure Revolution in the Keys

BY ALEXANDRA MARVAR

The products of a two-decade, billion-dollar water treatment system overhaul in Monroe County, Florida may be hidden away underground, but the island chain’s conversion from septic systems to central sewer is giving water quality a visible boost.

In the 1990s, water quality concerns in Florida made headlines as families saw contaminants—from banned pesticides to radioactivity—coming out of their faucets. In the Florida Keys, those concerns drew national attention: Somehow, wastewater was making its way to the oceans, where it threatened the country’s only coral reef ecosystem. As scientists worked to explain these threats, a research team in Key Largo threw a tracing dye into residential septic tanks, and then observed what happened next: In a matter of hours, they saw that the dye had leached out of septic tanks and into Key Largo’s canals, where it flowed to the sea. Outflow from septic tanks following this same course spurs blooms of toxic bacteria, seagrass and fish die-offs, and serious damage to coastal

environments, putting people and the environment—along with the fisheries that contribute billions of dollars per year to Florida’s economy—at risk.

It was going to be expensive, and it was going to be difficult, but it was clear that change was essential, and in 1999, the State of Florida passed legislation mandating that the entire archipelago convert from septic tanks to advanced new wastewater treatment infrastructure based on sewer. For a small county that stretches more than 100 miles over a series of 42 islands with foundations of coral, this has been no small feat. In fact, it took nearly 20 years of work to get the entirety of the Keys—with its 12 major service areas and more than 30,000 septic tanks—overhauled.

According to Kevin G. Wilson, Assistant County Administrator of Monroe County, the septic system simply was not built for environments like Florida’s coast—and certainly not for the Keys. For one thing, traditional septic systems require a minimum of two feet of dry ground around their leach field. “In these systems, wastewater percolates through top soil, and there’s a lot of biological action that takes place,” he said. “Because our islands are maybe a couple inches of soil at most on top of porous bedrock, we don’t have that down here.”

Wilson has overseen sweeping septic-to-sewer overhauls over the last decade and a half, and the logistics of laying miles of piping underground—where the water table is sometimes less than two feet below the surface—were one hurdle, he said. But

the biggest challenge was a matter of budget. As grants and other funding trickled in, Keys communities made the switch from septic to sewer, one by one.

All in, the cost hit about a billion dollars, according to Wilson, with $250 million of that falling to residents for “last-mile” infrastructure—connecting individual homes and businesses to the new advanced wastewater treatment network.

LEADING THE REST

Key West—the first Keys community to have a central sewer system—was also first to make its upgrades, beginning with its existing 1989 sewage system in 2001. The city upgraded the facility to an advanced wastewater treatment plant, with ozone

Anglers fish a flat with exposed limestone in the foreground. The limestone of the Florida Keys makes septic systems inappropriate for wastewater treatment.

Photo: Ian Wilson

and UV technology, and a deep injection well system.

According to City of Key West Sustainability Coordinator Alison Higgins, available data has the municipality looking “better than most” at keeping markers like phosphorus, carbon and nitrogen below the thresholds. An ad hoc environmental committee is considering big next steps, not limited to nation-leading technology to make treated effluent so clean it’s potable. And for years, Key West has been encouraging, through grants, the conversion of abandoned septic tanks to cisterns for rainwater collection.

Community after community got on board, and by 2010, only the most complex and expensive projects had yet to be addressed. One was the four-island village of Islamorada.

Peter Frezza, Islamorada’s Manager of Environmental Resources, agreed with Wilson that cost was the biggest delay to progress. Compelling homeowners to lay out that $250 million wasn’t easy, he said.

“Some people were glad to do it. I was thrilled to do it,” he recalled. “But the fines were the real motivator for most people,” he added. “If there wasn’t a significant penalty for lack of compliance, honestly it would never have happened so quickly and smoothly.” Once the funding came through and residents got

on board, however, the results have been gratifying.

“We’re seeing less nutrients, less fecal biomarker,” he noted of nearshore water quality. It’s difficult, if not impossible, however, to isolate the septic conversion and measure its direct impact. Surface runoff from roads and homes, fertilizer from yards, and a number of other things factor into the big picture. Plus, he said, decades of contamination are accumulated within the bedrock. A major storm— like Hurricane Irma, which washed untold contaminants from bedrock into the sea—can really muddy the waters.

That said, he and colleagues are seeing positive trends: And along with the data comes anecdotal evidence, from the clarity of the water to the health of fish species and biodiversity of aquatic life in the village’s canals.

ON THE HORIZON

More than two decades after the 1999 state mandate, Assistant County Administrator Wilson said, nearly all of Monroe County has centralized sewer. “There are still a few really far-out outlier houses that we can never get out to for any affordable amount of money,” he noted. “But we started with 36,000, and now there are fewer than 100 septic tanks.”

With that accomplishment has come a widespread consensus

The wastewater treatment facility at Grassy Key. Photo: Marty Dashiell

Sea level rise will further exacerbate the challenges for South Florida as it affects wastewater treatment and general infrastructure, and causes saltwater intrusion. Photo: Monroe County

that the outcome was worth the cost, both in terms of high-level environmental conservation, and in terms of cost efficiency and modernization when it comes to individual residential utilities systems, he said.

“Before, every house had a septic tank, and you had to have it pumped regularly and you had to pay somebody to clean it out from time to time,” Wilson said. “And now you don’t have to do that. You just flush and it goes away.”

With this challenge behind them, Keys communities are looking ahead. As of June 2021, public officials had committed to spending $1.8 billion over the next 25 years to prepare for rising water and flooding.

“We’re not much worried about wastewater anymore,” Wilson said. “The next big thing that we can do anything about is the stormwater. When it’s been dry for a couple of weeks and starts to rain, and you see that white foamy stuff on the water running off roads, that’s made up of products from internal combustion engines; rubber from your tires; motor oil. Every road has it, and in the Keys, some of these roads are just a few inches above sea level. How can we control or treat that stormwater? That’s what we’re looking at now.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the state has a lot of catching up to do, said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. Florida’s wastewater treatment strategy leans heavily on septic tanks, to the point that

this state alone uses 2.6 million septic tanks—one in 10 septics in the U.S. While sea level rise infringes on Florida’s septic systems, McDuffie said, these systems aren’t equipped to stand up to the threat.

“Historically, Florida’s septic systems have not been well maintained,” he said. “They haven’t been well monitored. And many of them have been in use well beyond their recommended lifespan.”

For example, according to the Miami Waterkeeper, more than half of Miami-Dade County’s 120,000 septic systems are currently compromised, and by 2040, as the water table rises, that percentage will only rise.

“Our recreational fishery alone contributes billions of dollars in annual economic impact to the state,” McDuffie said, adding that this is why BTT continues to lobby for legislation and funding to transition away from septic statewide. “So much of Florida’s future depends on dealing with these issues. We hope the Florida Keys conversion from septic to sewer provides a model for other areas of the state.”

Alexandra Marvar is a freelance journalist based in Savannah, Georgia. Her writing can be found in The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine and elsewhere.

This map depicts the seven wastewater districts managed by the Florida Keys Aquaculture Authority. The wastewater treatment plants in Marathon (not pictured) are managed by the City of Maraton, and the wastewater treatment plants of Key Largo (not pictured) are managed by the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District (KLWTD). Islamorada does not have any treatment plants; the town pumps all of its effluent to the KLWTD to be treated. Map: Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority

Roger Waters performs at a recent concert.

Photo courtesy of Roger Waters.

WISH YOU WERE HERE

BY MONTE BURKE

The first time Roger Waters ever fished for bonefish was in the early 1990s. He was in Miami for the horse race that was then known as the Miami Breeders’ Cup. His wife and kids had absconded for Disney World. “I was bored, actually,” he says. “I wondered, ‘what the f&*k am I going to do with myself?’”

By this time, Waters had been a serious flyfisherman for nearly a decade, focusing primarily on trout and grayling on English chalk streams, where he often fished with Alan Mann, a friend, neighbor and ace angler. Mann used to kid Waters about his fishing, telling him that when he got a bit better at casting, he should try his hand at bonefishing. “I thought about that quite a bit,” says Waters. So, wearied by the horses and the racing scene, and with no desire to go to Disney (“Just kill me instead,” he says), and believing that, yes, his casting was indeed now ready, Waters called Mann and asked him if he knew any guides who could fish him in Biscayne Bay. Mann asked around. Bill Curtis was booked. But a relatively new-to-the-scene guide named Bob Branham happened to have an open day.

Waters and Branham met at the dock in the morning. Branham asked Waters if he had ever flyfished for bonefish. Waters explained that the only flyfishing he’d ever done was in fresh water.

“OK. Let’s catch one on a spinning rod, first,” Branham said.

So Branham “stuck a bloody shrimp on my hook and then I cast it toward a bonefish,” says Waters. “Of course, it ran over and picked up the shrimp and ran away with it, like they do— zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz—and I thought, ‘bloody hell, this is great.’” Waters then asked for the fly rod and soon hooked a decent-sized bonefish. “It was so cool,” he says. “What a powerful little critter. I was completely hooked, too.”

Branham had been told that his tall, lanky British client had something to do with Pink Floyd, a band that he had listened to a decent amount as a younger man. Branham says that, in his head, he’d always envisioned Pink Floyd and all of those 1970s-era rockers as “drug-addled guys who couldn’t put two sentences together and spent their days busting up hotel room furniture.” But Waters, as he discovered fairly quickly that day on the boat, was nothing like that. “He was so gracious and warm and insightful,” says Branham. “I thought to myself, ‘he can’t actually be in Pink Floyd. He must do something else for them.’”

At some point during their day together in Biscayne Bay, Branham worked up the courage to ask Waters about his role in the band.

“So, I heard you worked for Pink Floyd,” he said. “Were you like a roadie or something?”

Waters laughed goodheartedly.

“Er, no. It was a bit more than that.”

Indeed it was.

In the early 1960s, Waters, a bassist, and Nick Mason, a drummer, and Richard Wright, a keyboardist, were all studying architecture at the same school in London when they started playing together in a band. The trio eventually brought in Syd Barrett, a guitarist and childhood friend of Waters’. In 1965, after trying out a few different names, the band officially became known as Pink Floyd. They began to play gigs in local nightclubs, gradually growing a following and becoming known for their ethereal instrumental solos and rather rudimentary, but engaging, light shows. They signed a record deal and, in 1967, cut their first album. That same year, as Barrett’s mental health began to decline, the band added a singer and guitarist named David Gilmour to the ranks. In 1968, Barrett officially left Pink Floyd, and Waters became the band’s unquestioned leader, creating and shaping the concepts for the albums, writing most of the lyrics and singing on many of the tracks.

And from that point on, the band went on one of the most impressive decade-long runs in the history of recorded music. In 1973, Pink Floyd released the album, Dark Side of the Moon, which was followed, in subsequent years, by Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall and The Final Cut. The themes of the albums captured the mood of the age, ranging from war and alienation and xenophobia to the dangers of materialism and technology. The band’s concerts became hits, too, famous for

Roger Waters and BTT Northeast Representative Alex Powers with a striped bass landed in Peconic Bay, New York. Photo: Brendan McCarthy

their atmospheric ambience and psychedelic (and far from rudimentary) light displays.

Pink Floyd remains one of the best-selling acts in history, with reportedly more than 250 million records sold worldwide. Dark Side of the Moon spent 923 weeks on Billboard Magazine’s Top 200 list and supposedly sold so many copies that a pressing plant in Germany was dedicated to making only that CD for decades up until the mid-2000s, when streaming music began to rise to prominence.

In 1985, two decades after the founding of Pink Floyd, Waters left the band after failing to resolve creative differences with Gilmour and Mason. The split was acrimonious, with Waters arguing that the remaining members should no longer be able to use the band’s name. When the dispute was resolved in 1987, Waters retained all of his publishing copyrights, but Gilmour and Mason were allowed to continue to use the Pink Floyd name.

But even after he broke from Pink Floyd, Waters never stopped creating music. He has since released seven solo albums and has done seven tours. His 1990 concert, The Wall—Live in Berlin, reportedly attracted 200,000 people, making it one of the largest single-act concerts in history. In 1996, Waters was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Gilmour and Mason both joined him onstage at a 2011 London performance of The Wall for the songs “Comfortably Numb” and “Outside the Wall.” And his 2013 tour was the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist. Now 78, Waters embarked on his latest tour, This Is Not A Drill, in the summer and fall of 2022. While his Instagram page claimed it would be his last, Waters says, “I don’t know about that.”

Waters was born in Surrey. After his father was killed in World War II—when Waters was just five months old—his mother moved the family to Cambridge, which is where Waters’ infatuation with fishing began. There, on the River Cam, he used a bamboo pole and bent pin baited with a bit of bread to catch roach, gudgeon and other “coarse” fish. Eventually, he says, he “graduated to a slightly better kit” and started to target the pike that lived in the millpond in the middle of town. “I pretty much just figured it all out on my own,” he says. “I just really enjoyed fishing.”

After college, when he settled in London, he continued to do some coarse fishing in the River Thames. One day, a golfing chum asked him if he wanted to try fishing with a fly. Waters was game, and the man took him to a pond stocked with rainbow trout. “It was sort of a beginners guide to quote-unquote, ‘flyfishing,’” Waters says. “The raggedy-looking rainbows would pretty much eat any type of fly you threw at them. So we threw big gaudy flies the color of Teddy Boys socks, you know, fluorescent green or pink.” Soon, though, he discovered that casting a small, naturallooking dry fly at a feeding fish was more challenging and fun. “If you managed to entice a fish to take the fly, the reward was the satisfaction of feeling a two-or-three pound trout that you had just outwitted, tugging on your line,” he says.

The biggest step in his progress as a flyfisherman started just as his stint in Pink Floyd was coming to an end. It was helped along by a fellow musician. In 1985, while working on his first solo effort, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, Waters asked his friend, Eric Clapton, to play guitar on the record. When the album was done, Clapton asked if Waters was going to tour with the record. Waters replied, jokingly, “Oh, and I suppose you’ll come on the road and play guitar in my band?” Clapton grinned and said, “Of course I will.” They left on a tour of Europe and the U.S. shortly afterward.

Clapton, by this time, was an avid Atlantic salmon and trout angler, and a member of the Timsbury Salmon and Trout Club on the River Test. He invited Waters to fish the club with him one day. “Eric lent me a rod and gave me some flies and put me in a spot and said, ‘you’ll figure it out,’ and then walked away upstream,” says Waters. “So I stood there—this was during the mayfly hatch—and cast to rising fish and caught a grayling and thought to myself, ‘well, this is f&*king great, isn’t it?’”

The River Test quickly became an obsession. Waters read everything he could about it and fished it whenever he got an invitation, gradually learning the river’s nuances. He eventually came to the conclusion that he wanted some of his own water on the river, and he had one house in particular in mind. One day, as he was driving back to London after a day of fishing, he crossed a bridge over the Test that passed the house he coveted. His phone rang. It was a real estate agent he knew who told him that he might have found something he would like.

It turned out to be the house he was driving past at that moment. He became the owner in 1991. The property came with the rights to about 600 yards of double bank fishing and an additional 600 yards on one bank stretching to the top of the Timsbury beat “It is a beautiful bit of fishing.” he says. “These

Roger Waters in action. Photo courtesy of Roger Waters.

days it’s my friends who fish it. I like to ghillie.”

Not too long after that purchase, Waters had that first day in the salt with Branham, which spawned an entirely new obsession. In the years following that first trip, he fished a handful of more days with Branham. “In my 45 years of guiding, I can honestly say that he was the most interesting, nicest and most down-to-earth guy that ever rode in my boat,” says Branham. Waters would later fish with the guide, Harry Spear, who he says, “is a great fisherman who had a huge passion for running 40 miles every day, practically to San Diego!” Waters hooked his first tarpon with guide John Donnell. “Roger is so fun to fish with,” says Donnell. “He’s a really good caster, and he tells some great stories about the Pink Floyd days.”

Waters had a day with guide Tim Hoover in which he fed five tarpon, landing three of them, on the big flats off of Little Palm Island. “That was many years ago, but spots like that you never forget. If I went back there now, I bet I could still figure it out,” Waters says. “You remember these types of things.” He says now that if he hooks a tarpon, he, like many anglers these days, jumps it and then breaks it off. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to get a poon to the boat anymore. It’s just too hard on man and beast alike.”

Permit have bedeviled him (he’s not alone in that). He has, occasionally, targeted them in Key West with BTT Northeast Representative Alex Powers, a frequent fishing partner. Waters figures he’s cast to maybe 100 permit, and landed two of those. His favorite permit was one that he hooked, but did not land, in

the Berry Islands. A generous friend who owns a cay in the Berries called him one day and invited him to go fishing. “I was at Ocean Reef and had no idea how I would get down there. The guy sent a plane for me the next morning. It was quite something. I had breakfast and then went out with a guide.”

The day was windy and the bonefishing was poor because of hot weather. His guide, David Lightbourne, suggested they check out a permit spot on a sandbar off Sandy Cay just for fun. They motored over and Waters, who was still rigged for bonefish with an eight-weight rod and ten-pound tippet, immediately spotted a very large permit. “The wind was blowing so hard that David couldn’t slow down the boat,” says Waters. “So I just threw the fly near the fish. It sank and the permit followed it down and picked it up. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was just daft.”

The permit ran toward the sandbar, which had only a few inches of water on it. But instead of bumping off of it, the fish turned on its side, flopped its way across the bar and then headed north into open water. “We couldn’t chase it because of the sandbar,” he says. He watched the giant fish swim blithely away. “A hundred-odd feet of fly line followed by a couple of hundred yards of backing and then ping,” he says.

Bonefish, though, remain his true love. “I love them because their habitat and habits are so varied, and if you want to spend time going after big bonefish, you have to spend time studying the topography and the tides, trying to figure out where they come from and where they might be,” he says. “I love that part of the

Waters in the recording studio. Photo courtesy of Roger Waters.

game.” His biggest fish came while he was visiting his friends, Charles and Cindy Bethel, at Flamingo Cay Rod & Gun Club on the west side of Andros. “I was fishing with a young guide named Gordon Baggett when we spotted a pair of big fish swimming away from us along the edge of a deep channel, moving away from us quite quickly,” says Waters. Baggett poled after the fish, but could never quite catch up. “So I decided to throw caution to the wind. I thought, ‘Bugger it, I’ll throw the fly to one side of the bigger fish’s head and just hope.’ So I did, and bugger me if that bloody fish didn’t hear the fly land and turn its head and scoff the bloody thing down.” That bonefish weighed 13 pounds, 4 ounces.

Waters has fished all over the world for many different types of species—for trout in New Zealand and golden dorado in Argentina and for Atlantic salmon and steelhead. He fishes every year with Powers and guide Paul Dixon on the flats and in the rips of New York’s Long Island for striped bass and bluefish. Waters even had a cameo in Jamie Howard’s movie about striped bass, Running the Coast, in which he caught a fish and sang a song he had made up on a whim about fishing. “Roger is great fun to be around and fish with,” says Dixon. “He’s a true fisherman.”

Part of his angling ability no doubt comes from his natural athleticism. Waters excelled at rugby as a schoolboy and also played field hockey and cricket. He is an avid golfer who got his handicap down to 10 in 2020 when he played many rounds to stave off cabin fever during the early part of the COVID pandemic. “Roger is really good at things he does with his hands,” says Powers. “He’s an excellent angler, chef, golfer and pool player.”

But the bigger part of fishing for Waters is the mental side, which is one of the reasons he likes the southern flats so much. “I love the look of it all, the colors, the aquamarine,” he says. “I love that kind of sight-fishing. It’s something your brain has to learn. It’s not something you can learn intellectually. Your brain has to learn to see fish. It’s exquisite.”

So exquisite, Waters says, that it needs protecting. Waters is a veteran activist who had thrown himself with gusto into causes that range from malaria and poverty to the health of military veterans and taking on Chevron for poisoning the Amazon River. Helping in the fight to conserve flats and flats species has become another cause. Waters supported BTT’s first mangrove creek restoration in the Bahamas, a project that restored tidal flow to August Creek on the East End of Grand Bahama and set the stage for similar projects to come. “Thank God there are people and organizations like BTT who are passionate about conserving these species and their habitat. I think if you fish for these species, you have a moral obligation to help. The entire world’s ecosystem is our responsibility, but we sometimes forget that we ought to be custodians,” he says. “BTT is focused on one small bit of the world’s ecosystem, but that’s so important. If we can get enough people to do things like this, we can help to stitch it all together and make a real difference. And if we’re galvanized into helping a little bit just because we like to creep around on the flats and chase these slippery little creatures, then so be it. Without BTT, no one would be doing this. Bonefish are no less important than anything else.”

The biggest challenges for flats and flats species, Waters says, are simple human greed—“We don’t care about the ecosystem, we only care about having a bigger car,” he says—and the fact that we are amused to death (as one of his solo albums is titled), mainly by our phones and constant connectivity.

Waters is big into the idea of getting away, or at least taking a break, from our modern, connected world. One of his more popular songs from his solo career is called “Go Fishing,” which is about the fantasy of going off to live in the woods. Waters is also a fan of the River Cottage cookbook series, which he describes as

“some bloke with steel-rimmed glasses and curly hair probably living pretty happily with his wife and kids figuring out how to cook dandelions. I kind of like that idea.”

Phones, in particular, drive him mad. “They are the most powerful thing the ruling class ever created,” he says. “They discovered a way to enslave the masses. Phones have removed the possibility of paying serious attention to a book or an idea, or even of daydreaming. People take them out on boats or anywhere all of the time now. I’ve nearly had fights over this.”

He recalls one day when he invited the former tennis star John McEnroe to play golf with him at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island. “We’re out there and he starts pulling out his phone and looking at it and I told him to put it away,” says Waters. “I could see him starting to do the McEnroe thing and get angry. But then he just said, ‘OK.’ He actually seemed to be kind of relieved when he stopped looking at it. Phones are so contagious. They are the real pandemic.”

When Waters has had enough of phones and modern technology and needs to get back in touch with himself and nature, he says he does what his song title commands and goes fishing. “I like being around fishermen. It’s really nice. The last time I was out with Paul and Alex, I was thinking, ‘these guys are proper fishermen. I’m just an old bass player.’ But I understand it. I get it and I enjoy it. I am hooked in that way. I’m quite attentive to it. You have to be a proper naturalist to get the most out of it. I really like to be on the water in a flats boat or wading some flat because I like to learn about something. Something real.”

Monte Burke is The New York Times bestselling author of Saban, 4th And Goal and Sowbelly. His latest book, Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World-Record Tarpon, is available now. He is a contributing editor at Forbes and Garden & Gun

Anglers fish for bonefish in Grand Bahama’s August Creek following the completion of the restoration project supported by Waters.

Photo: Nick Roberts

Bonefish Pre-Spawning Aggregations Identified in Florida Keys

BY CHRIS SANTELLA

Back in 2010, scientists working in the Bahamas cracked one of flats fishing’s great mysteries: how bonefish reproduce. Follow-up work showed that during full and new moons from fall through early spring, fish that have traveled from as far away as 70 miles will form pre-spawning aggregations (PSAs) at nearshore sites, where they prepare to spawn by porpoising at the surface and gulping air to fill their swim bladders. At night, these large groups of fish—as many as 10,000—swim offshore and dive hundreds of feet before surging back up to the surface. It’s thought that the sudden change in pressure during the ascent makes their swim bladders expand, helping them release their eggs and sperm. After fertilization takes places, the hatched larvae drift in the ocean’s currents for between 41 and 71 days before settling in shallow sand- or mudbottom bays, where they develop into juvenile bonefish. Determining the location of bonefish PSAs is critically important, as the larvae produced after such gatherings are the foundation of future generations of fish, both for local and distant populations. If habitat at aggregation sites is lost or degraded, or if spawning behavior is disturbed by boat or other human activity, spawning success will be negatively impacted, and ultimately, the health of the fishery will be, too.

Aggregations are not limited to the Bahamas, of course. BTT has helped identify aggregation locations in Cuba and Belize as well. But isolating those locales closer to home— namely in the Florida Keys—has proven more vexing…until now.

“The location of these bonefish aggregations has been a great unknown for most of the angling and scientific community,” said Dr. Ross Boucek, BTT’s Florida Keys Initiative Manager. “Maybe for a time the size of the spawning school in the Keys shrank to the point that it wasn’t noticeable to us. Or maybe the size of the Keys population became so small that the fish completely stopped spawning for a period of time. Fish won’t spawn if there aren’t a critical number of spawning fish. The locations of permit aggregations across the Keys are pretty well known. But the bonefish PSAs are hidden in plain sight—how could we not notice 1,000 or more bonefish on the surface in a populated coastal environment?”

To home in on some likely bonefish aggregation spots, Boucek turned to some stakeholders who know the water—and the fish’s habits—as well as anyone: Keys fishing guides. “We asked them where they’d seen bonefish on the surface, jumping,” Dr. Boucek continued. “We formally

Bonefish have small home ranges but some will travel more than 50 miles to reach pre-spawning aggregation sites. Photo: Ian Wilson

interviewed six or seven guides who’d been at it for many years. Everyone had seen at least one occurrence, though some were many years past.” As word of the project got out, other guides also reported their sightings. Overall, the guides reported 21 possible bonefish PSAs over the last 30 years; 13 of the sites were situated between the Marquesas Keys and Biscayne Bay, with the area from Islamorada north containing the most sites.

From the 13 potential PSA sites the guides identified, Dr. Boucek’s team picked a handful of the most promising sites and outfitted them with acoustic telemetry receivers. These receivers pick up signals transmitted from acoustic transmitters (tags) implanted in the bonefish. Within two months, a likely PSA spot had been identified. “We used a newly designed tag type that

records the maximum depth the fish swim to and transmits this information back to the receiver,” Dr. Boucek explained. “We knew from our earlier research that spawning fish in the Bahamas swim to depths of more than 300 feet. The receivers showed four fish show up at this one site on the same day; one had the new tag, and it recorded a depth of 50 feet. This could’ve been shallow spawning, or something else. In the Bahamas, we’ve seen bonefish do false offshore runs, and not actually spawn. So we set the minimum depth we think is valid for bonefish spawning at 200 feet.

“Three weeks later, we recorded five fish on the same day at one of the sites; one had swum 50 miles to reach it, another had one of the new tags with a depth transmitter. This fish was recorded as having reached a depth of 300 feet. The behavior repeated itself in March. So far, we’ve recorded three aggregations and one confirmed spawning. The main challenge is it’s very hard to be there at the same time as the fish are.”

Captain Bob Branham, a longtime Keys guide, former BTT board member and 2020 Circle of Honor Guide/Angler Award recipient, has been providing his expertise in the search for PSAs. “In the past, I used to see the bonefish congregations all the time, and we’d target them,” he said. “Now there’s only one spot that I’ll sometimes find them around full or new moons. And there are usually lots of sharks around. If you hook a fish, they’ll get eaten.

“Like so many of us, I find myself asking the $64 million question—why did our bonefish populations fall off the face of the earth? I used to think it was because the water quality was

The guides reported 21 possible bonefish PSAs over the last 30 years; 13 of the sites were situated between the Marquesas Keys and Biscayne Bay, with the area from Islamorada north containing the most sites.

Dr. Ross Boucek releases a bonefish after tagging it with an acoustic transmitter. Photo: Ian Wilson

poor, or we’d over-shrimped the region, or there were too many boats. Some of BTT’s current science suggests that it’s because our young fish come from down current—Cuba, Belize, and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. But if they’re netted there, we’re not going to get any.”

What are BTT’s goals going forward with the PSA study? Certainly, it will add to our collective understanding of the life cycle of bonefish, their habitat use, movement patterns and spawning behavior. “By gaining a better idea of bonefish spawning habits around the Keys, we’ll get a clearer sense of what’s impacting spawning success,” Dr. Boucek added. “I suspect water quality is an issue; our studies have shown that the Keys’ bonefish are influenced by pharmaceuticals released into the water. We can’t help but suspect that this interferes with reproduction. PSA behavior could be a red flag that something is happening at the reproductive level.”

Dr. Boucek hopes to know more next spawning season, but even then there will be more work to be done. It’s highly likely that there are a number of other PSA sites and offshore spawning locations in the Florida Keys. Once Dr. Boucek figures out the

current focal area near Islamorada, he’ll turn the focus to other potential locations. Determining where bonefish gather prior to spawning will let BTT know if protections are needed.

“Once it’s determined where bonefish spawn offshore, BTT can improve estimates of where bonefish larvae are transported after spawning,” said Dr. Aaron Adams, BTT’s Director of Science and Conservation. “BTT scientists know from previous oceanographic and genetics studies that some of the bonefish in the Florida Keys come from locations in the Caribbean, including Belize, Mexico, and southwest Cuba. Do larvae spawned offshore of the Florida Keys circle back to the Keys in local gyres, or do they get caught in the Gulf Stream and lost to the north? This information will help BTT as it works with management agencies in multiple countries to develop comprehensive management plans.”

Chris Santella is the author of 21 books, including the popular “Fifty Places” series from Abrams. He’s a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and TROUT

BTT is searching for bonefish prespawning aggreations in the Florida Keys like this one discovered in the Bahamas. Photo: Tom Henshilwood

CONSERVATION CONNECTIONS

Why BTT’s 7th International Science Symposium & Flats Expo Will Be the Most Powerful One Yet

BY ALEXANDRA MARVAR

With solid science as their north star, flats fishery stakeholders of every kind will come together November 4-5 to solve some of the biggest conservation conundrums facing flats species today, in the most inclusive, data-informed summit to date.

The water is roiling under the Bahia Honda rail bridge in Big Pine Key, a known hotspot for tarpon. As climate change, water quality issues and a tangle of other factors put stress on the Keys’ tarpon population, the nearby reefs, and the ecosystems’ predators, angling here has become tense lately. In fact, for some players, the stakes are life or death. In a recent shift, hammerheads causing serious depredation of tarpon, some of which are staging to spawn, may be becoming more common. Anglers are seeing tarpon snatched right off their lines, local guides’ livelihoods are becoming strained, and the sharks—also vulnerable and critical players in the reef ecosystem—are taking the heat.

Enter NOAA Fellow and shark biologist Grace Casselberry, a shark tracking expert investigating the causes of—and the solutions to—this flashpoint predation event, along with her PhD advisor at UMass Amherst, professor of fish conservation, and BTT Research Fellow Dr. Andy Danylchuk. It’s a “perfect storm,” as Danylchuk puts it, of pandemic-propelled fishing traffic, predation trends and climate change, and the need for solutions is urgent,

A string of tarpon in the Florida Keys.

Photo: Ian Wilson

A hammerhead shark attacks a tarpon in the Florida Keys. Photo: Jenni Bennett

for the guides, the anglers, the marine life, and the health of the fishery at large.

The team’s findings—and possible solutions—will be presented this November along with dozens of other important studies at the 7th BTT International Science Symposium & Flats Expo, November 4-5 at the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens. There, all the key stakeholders—internationally recognized marine scientists and flyfishing guides, resource managers and lodge owners, anglers and educators, conservation organizations, industry leaders and brands—will become part of the conversation about what’s going on, and what to do about it.

One of Florida’s most beloved and most diverse fishing industry throwdowns, the Symposium was first launched 20 years ago. If BTT’s mission is to “bring science to the fight,” this is the War Room.

“Science-based approaches to conservation can work only if we understand and embrace them,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “The Symposium provides us a special opportunity every three years to rally anglers, guides, resource managers, industry leaders and other stakeholders to hear the latest research as well as to renew our resolve to work collaboratively.”

The theme of this year’s event is Conservation Connections, which springs from the mission of not only boosting awareness on the biggest conservation issues facing saltwater flats fisheries, but of bringing all these parties together to address them. The

action-packed two-day program offers panel discussions and research debuts, spin, fly casting and fly tying clinics, and more, not to mention the planet’s largest conservation-driven saltwater consumer event. According to Luiz Barbieri, program administrator of marine fisheries research at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, the most pressing issues he’ll be there to discuss include: “Habitat, habitat and habitat.”

Habitat, Front and Center

For management agencies like Barbieri’s, adjusting the dial on how many fish are harvested has long been the main form of regulatory control to protect a species and their broader ecosystem. But the more we learn about the threats facing fisheries today, he says, the clearer it becomes that regulation of harvest isn’t impactful enough—especially in catch-and-release fisheries.

“We see some of the systems, for example, in the Florida Keys, where these extensive coral reefs are being impacted by climate change, which is altering the habitats that those fish live in,” Barbieri said. “And we have this trickle-down effect. The whole system is kind of slowly eroding before our eyes.” Not to be dramatic, he added: this “erosion” looks less like an avalanche and more like barely perceptible changes—in temperature regimes, rainfall or other factors associated with climate change. But even these subtle differences are leaving their mark on the

Researchers tag a hammerhead shark in the Florida Keys. Photo: Kevin Grubb

ecosystem, influencing the prey and, in turn, the predators.

“Controlling the removal of fish from the population as a way to protect populations and allow populations to be sustainable over time is great and has worked for hundreds of years,” Barbieri said. “But we now understand that, of course, it’s very important to more explicitly, directly integrate habitats, including water quality, into the way that we manage.”

These other threats, he says, are not as easy to see and address. “That’s why this greater understanding is important,” he said. “You need the data on these things to understand: What are those main connections? Where are those many vulnerabilities we need to watch, and when?”

The Latest Research

According to BTT Director of Science and Conservation Dr. Aaron Adams, these questions are exactly what the symposium is designed to help answer, widening the lens and looking at fishery issues from a holistic, international viewpoint. “It’s totally understandable to get hyper focused on the crisis of the day and management,” he said. “But that’s just playing whack-a-mole unless you have a bigger-picture perspective.”

That perspective will come through presentations like this year’s “Rethinking the Future of Flats Fishery Management,” in which BTT Juvenile Tarpon Habitat Program Manager JoEllen Wilson will present actionable science that can be applied by fisheries management to include habitat, aiming to help all stakeholders understand, from their own roles, the network of moving parts at work, and how to make conservation planning more effective.

“Right now, fisheries management for marine fisheries doesn’t incorporate habitat. It doesn’t incorporate water quality,” Adams said. “One of our goals here is to help lay the groundwork for how Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission could create a management system that incorporates habitat and water quality, because if they do that, then others will follow.”

BTT scientists also will make a case for spending more resources on studying how to better regulate catch-and-release. In the five years since the last BTT symposium, there have been only a few new studies conducted on how bonefish, tarpon, and permit respond to catch-and-release, including the first ever such study on permit. However, existing data on bonefish in the Bahamas indicate that mortality rates from shark and barracuda predation after a fish is released may sometimes be as high

BTT is working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to incorporate habitat into fisheries management, beginning with redfish and snook. Photo: Pat Ford

as one in every three fish. Panels and presentations including “Catch-and-Release Science for Fish on the Flats” and “Money to Burn? Why Science-based Best Practices for Catch-andRelease Matter” will look at ways to reduce predation rates after fish are put back—and crunch the numbers on how this could save a fishery millions.

Dr. Jordan Cissell and team mapped the impact of Hurricane Dorian on mangrove forests in Grand Bahama and Abaco and will offer an update on the progress of BTT’s Northern Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project, the science that helped to lay the groundwork for the project, and how it all ties back to flats fish populations. Among the studies shared by Dr. Luke Griffin will be a look at all we’ve learned from BTT’s Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project, as a discussion about findings from years of research on the movement patterns of tarpon, and how those findings could inform broader, regional, cooperative management strategies throughout the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. And BTT Collaborating Scientist Dr. Jennifer Rehage and Dr. Jerker Fick of Sweden’s Umeå University will present the latest findings on the threat of pharmaceuticals to Florida’s flats fishery—exploring how drugs that filter through wastewater systems into coastal habitats, from birth control to opioids, affect species like bonefish—along with reviewing possible solutions to this growing problem.

Another impact Adams and BTT hope the Symposium will have is to convince the State of Florida to elevate repairing and upgrading its wastewater treatment infrastructure to a number-

one priority. “Again,” Adams said, “that would have nationwide and regional implications. We’re literally polluting ourselves to death—as well as our fish.”

Multidisciplinary Conservation Solutions in the Wild

According to Rehage and research associate Nicholas Castillo, the study on pharmaceutical contaminants in bonefish habitats, which involved catching and sampling a number of bonefish, would not have been possible without the skilled anglers and guides who took part in the process. Another instance—like Danylchuk and Casselberry’s hammerhead and tarpon research—where stakeholders both in the lab and on the water collaborated to create a new world of data.

“The symposium is unique in that anglers, fishing guides and scientists come together as a community to discuss what is happening to our fish and how do we make it better,” Rehage said. “I can’t think of another venue where this happens.”

The more connections these often-siloed players make, the more strategic, effective, and unobtrusive necessary closures can be; and, the more alternatives there may be to closures. In the case of the Bahia Honda, one possible solution researchers are exploring is to work with guides to install rare-earth magnets that repel the hammerheads, leaving tarpon and anglers to their sport—and reducing conflict between humans and sharks.

Dr. Jennifer Rehage releases a bonefish after sampling it for pharmaceutical contaminants.

Photo: Ian Wilson

The Flats Expo

The programs should yield actionable takeaways for fishery managers, scientists, conservation organizations—but what about for the general public? Danylchuk and colleagues will join a panel, “Power to the People: How Informed Advocacy Can Fuel Grassroots Conservation Efforts for Flats Fisheries,” taking a look at the recent growth of community-driven grassroots movements that can not only help bolster top-down lobby, but to foster bottom-up voluntary change. Panelists will delve into some specific cases wherein grassroots voluntary efforts backed by hard science boosted conservation efforts for flats fish habitats.

Brands can be major players in these grassroots efforts, with their direct relationships and communication channels to an audience that loves to get out on the water. BTT Platinum Sponsor Costa Sunglasses is presenting this year’s symposium, and their advocacy work is a key example of what brands are capable of in this space, starting with their ‘Kick Plastic’ campaign to raise awareness about limiting single-use bottles back when it was a radical thought.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” said Joe Gugino, Costa’s Conservation and Community Partnerships Manager. “We’ve been doing it for so long, it’s ingrained in who we are—it’s just how we do business.” Costa provides financial support, marketing support, and above all, momentum to conservation causes, leveraging customers’ trust in the brand to help boost the visibility and legitimacy of—and the love for—cause groups and their causes.

That’s why BTT’s Flats Expo is happening right alongside the symposium. Here, leading outfitters, guides, lodges, artists and more, including BTT supporters Maverick and Hell’s Bay Boatworks, and sponsors from the hospitality space, from Hawks Cay Resort to Campeche Lodge, will showcase the industry’s newest equipment, apparel, skiffs and tackle, and offer fly tying and casting demonstrations for every skill level. It’s also a chance for brands, consumers and causes to all come together.

“We’re not claiming perfectionism—it’s impossible to be perfect—but it’s always striving to be better and to improve,” Gugino said of Costa’s brand conservation focus. “For example, the symposium is one of our sponsorships and a lot of the effort we spend is removing single-use plastics as much as possible. That costs money, time and effort—and it’s more than just throwing a banner there. But that effort is showing our partners the importance of coming to the table with solutions—not just talking about them.”

Typically triennial, this upcoming installment of the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s International Science Symposium and Flats Expo has been delayed twice because of COVID-19, making it the first BTT Symposium since 2017, and with water infrastructure issues and the effects of climate change top of mind, its mission has never been more timely.

“This will require a more incrementalist approach,” FWC’s Barbieri said of the work at hand. “Instead of getting frustrated by our inability to handle the issue as a whole, we try to take one bite at a time, and understand that this is complex and multi-dimensional, that we’re not going to be able to wrap our arms around everything. But with a better understanding of how it all comes together and the science behind it, we can make some level of progress.”

Alexandra Marvar is a freelance journalist based in Savannah, Georgia. Her writing can be found in The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine and elsewhere.

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust to Honor Conservation Leader Matt Connolly

At the 7th International Science Symposium and Flats Expo, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust will honor Matt Connolly with the Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation alongside fellow award recipients Sandy Moret, Chico Ferndandez, and Dr. Andy Danylchuk.

“Matt Connolly shaped the cause of conservation in our nation,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “His leadership and his legacy are evident at many organizations, including Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, Ducks Unlimited, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Matt joined us at a critical moment in our development, and his efforts positioned BTT to become an effective conservation organization in Florida and across the range of flats species in this hemisphere.”

A lifelong conservationist, Connolly began his career as the state ornithologist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he served as assistant commissioner of natural resources, director of conservation services, director of coastal zone management, and director of fisheries and wildlife. Connolly went on to hold leadership positions at Ducks Unlimited (DU), serving as its first director of development and then as executive vice-president.

During that period, Connolly also served as first COO of Wetlands America Trust as well as chairman of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan Implementation Committee. Subsequently, he was appointed to the newly created North American Wetlands Council by the Bush and Clinton administrations and elected by the council as its first chairman.

Following his retirement from DU in 1999, Connolly served as the first president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). In 2005, he joined the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Board of Directors, where he went on to serve as Board President for 10 years. During his tenure, the organization began translating research results into fisheries policy and witnessed significant growth in membership, revenues, and visibility, the latter including his collaborative role in helping to bring the popular fishing show, Buccaneers & Bones, to television

Connolly has also served on three corporate boards and on the board of the federal Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. He is the recipient of the Chevron/Times Mirror National Conservation Award and the U.S Forest Service Chief’s Conservation Leadership Award.

As a 2022 award recipient, Connolly will be enshrined with other legends in BTT’s Circle of Honor, which is housed in the Florida Keys History & Discovery Center in Islamorada, Florida.

Matt Connolly

Guiding the Way

BY MICHAEL ADNO

Each year, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust honors anglers, guides, scientists and resource managers who have advanced flats fishery conservation. Within BTT’s Circle of Honor, one finds a group of people who embody the values that inspired BTT and helped to shape the organization. But above the acclaim of adding the honor to a resume, what

this means to the recipients is maybe less important than what they hope it will mean for the places they have dedicated themselves to protect and conserve. It’s an honor meant to recognize their role in fisheries conservation, their relationship to the culture of the sport, and what lies ahead. A century from now, maybe the record will read like a roadmap of sorts.

Captain Paul Dixon 2022 Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation

When asked about Paul Dixon, BTT board member Adelaide Skoglund thinks of two anecdotes. One is serious. The other she says not to mention. The first begins at five in the morning when Dixon and Skoglund leave the dock in the pitch black, just hoping they’d have Curtis Point to themselves by first light, which

can mean arriving long before sunrise. The other is about how Dixon says a four-letter word with such tenacity that it’s the first thing she thinks of when she hears his name. Between the two bookends, you get the sense of a deeply committed guide who is as serious as he is funny, who is as modest as he is admired.

Unsung is an understatement when it comes to Captain Dixon. In the 1980s, when he started poking around the east end of Long Island, the fishery there was nearly extinct. By the early 1990s when the striped bass fishery returned, he opened a shop, got his captains license, and built an outfitting service out of nothing.

Captain Paul Dixon

Rolling tarpon in the Florida Keys. Photo: Dan Diez

“People came out from the city and realized they didn’t have to go to the Keys,” he says. “The business grew. I bought more boats, trained more guides, and it sort of all just blew wide open.” Around the same time, a call came from Florida about guiding in the Upper Keys and bringing some of his clients down to a place called the Ocean Reef Club. He agreed, and soon he got word on the docks that there was going to be a meeting for something called “Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited.” When he cleared the doors, Stu Apte, Billy Pate, and Steve Huff were all the persuasion he needed to join, and Dixon found himself hanging over the gunwale with Tom Davidson soon after, inserting the first tag in a tarpon.

Back up north, his enthusiasm set his mind on fire, sitting in on meeting after meeting in Suffolk County, advocating for the protection of the fishery there, and later becoming a part of the Guides Associations in the Northeast that have largely looked to BTT

Andy Mill

2022 Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award

The marks that make up Andy Mill’s life look glamorous from 10,000 feet up. In broad strokes, the constellation includes Olympic skier, broadcast journalist, father, husband, podcaster, and formidable tournament angler, who won five Gold Cup tournaments. Mill remains one of the only anglers to ever win a major permit, bonefish, and tarpon tournament. He remembers watching Walker’s Cay Chronicles in the 1990s and how haunted he was by saltwater fish. “If I could ever see any of these fish just once,” he thought. “It would be a treasure.” His departure point of the television was like so many others that find their way to South Florida.

But it was strange how his own trajectory would so closely follow that of luminaries like Flip Pallot, who shaped Walker’s. Mill left skiing for journalism, the mountains for the Keys, went on to host his own television show, and then as an author he found himself signing books at the same table as Pallot, Chico Fernandez, Stu Apte, and Lefty Kreh at the first Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Symposium. “Here I was among the Mount Rushmore of fishermen, signing my own book,” he remembers thinking. And this year, to receive the Curt Gowdy Memorial Award, he just laughs. “Oh my god, it’s a real pinch-me-moment.”

“BTT is the organization it is today because of people like Andy Mill,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “Just like Curt Gowdy before him, Andy has shared his stage in life with us, helping to put a spotlight on our mission and inspiring others to support it. I know Curt would be so pleased that Andy has carried that banner forward.”

Over time, Mill has come to believe that his approach to conservation is one that reflects BTT’s values in terms of thinking on a broad scale but implementing action at a local level. “The fabric of the sport is connected by all these little dots, which are people who love to fish, and if they’re all of the same mindset that we’ve got to watch our own footprint then we’ve instantly helped the resource,” he says. Mill points to the way anglers handle fish, to where and when they fish with regard to worm hatches or shark predation, and even to the implementation of closures to protect spawning fish, noting how critical the closure of Western Dry Rocks will be for fisheries in the Keys.

“If you take a look at BTT, I’m so proud of that organization, because all these years later you see the impact they’ve had,” Mill says. “It really takes an army to move the needle.”

as a model. “This was a new way of looking at it, and that’s the way I saw BTT.” Science, data, and advocacy were the program, and it’s proved effective, he thought. Of course, he looks around and says, “Florida is heartbreaking to me. The water quality. The grass loss,” before pausing. “That’s why BTT is so important, because if you don’t fight in today’s world… I don’t know. I would like to say I hold hope, but it’s a tough world.”

In October, he will be honored at BTT’s annual dinner in New York City, an event that Dixon helped establish and co-chaired for years, cultivating support for BTT in the Northeast. Last year, the event raised a record-breaking $1 million for BTT’s conservation programs that span from the southeastern US to the Yucatán Peninsula. At a glance, you could deem Dixon a pessimist, but then again, after decades of advocacy, you might say otherwise. As Skoglund says, “He loves the industry. He loves the people involved. He loves the fish, and he wants people to enjoy them.”

Andy Mill. Photo: Greg Dini / Silver Kings

Dr. Lloyd Wruble 2023 Flats Stewardship Award

At the backend of the 1960s, Dr. Lloyd Wruble found himself in a medical residency in Miami. Behind their place on the Miami River, he spent weeks trying to jump one of the tarpon that rolled behind the apartment. When he passed the rod off to his wife to run inside, he came back to find her jumping one. Soon, Wruble started spending each Wednesday fishing out of Flamingo with a friend. Each morning, a guy would wave from a houseboat moored there as they headed into the backcountry. One Wednesday, the guy asked why they never invited him, and by the next week, they were deep in Hell’s Bay with Herman Lucerne learning what rivers led where.

For a long time, hundreds of thousands of acres seemed to belong only to them. The back of Tarpon Bay, the bends of Harney, Rogers, all the way up to Lostmans were empty. But with the introduction of GPS software to skiffs, those quiet, mostly unknown parts of the Everglades National Park became increasingly accessible, and at one point, the park considered making much of the backcountry a no motor zone. Lucerne, among others, fought it, and the idea died on the vine. Two decades later, it set seed again, and Wruble offered to take the Superintendent into the backcountry with him. After that trip with Wruble, the park buried the idea of implementing a broad no motor zone in the deepest parts of the backcountry, noting how difficult it would be for any canoe or kayak to reach those parts of the Park.

The backcountry became almost paternal to Wruble, as it did for so many others, including Flip Pallot, who was fishing with Lucerne on the days Wruble was seeing patients. “My earliest memories of him were not good. I didn’t care for him at all,” Pallot laughs, and Wruble echoes the sentiment. But with the same mentor, the two couldn’t avoid each other, and their friendship took shape when they were trapped together on a houseboat in the Everglades. Now, as Pallot says, the mere mention of Wruble’s name draws a smile. “He’s of the Everglades National Park, the estuarine part. I don’t think there’s anyone who knows it better than Lloyd does. There really haven’t been many people in the history of the park that have dedicated as much time, energy,

Flip Pallot 2023 Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award

Flip Pallot’s name is synonymous with the sport of saltwater fly-fishing. His voice has become the lodestar for an incalculable number of people that have tried their hand at it, but it might be more apt to note how central his presence has become in the groundswell of conservation efforts that seem omnipresent now. Yes, there’s the litany of romantic lines anglers love to quote from Pallot. There’s the lifestyle that grew out of what Pallot portrayed in his television series, Walker’s Cay Chronicles. And that’s precisely why his voice is so resonant today, if not cutting, when you hear him say, “I think recreational anglers are not nearly involved or aware enough. They’re, for the most part, selfish.”

Pallot doesn’t mince words when he notes the amount of time anglers devote to using the resource and the lack of time they

money, and ingenuity in terms of what realistically can be done. Lloyd has always been able to see through the forest of ideas and find solutions.”

After almost six decades in the Everglades, Wruble says, “You can’t just go out there and fish and not contribute to the sport.” Whether that’s awareness, helping anglers learn how to handle fish, or cleaning up the shorelines, he believes there’s responsibility that comes with engaging the resource. In his backyard, Wruble built a pond hemmed in with flora native to the southern Everglades and stocked it with tarpon and snook as a memorial to Herman Lucerne who died in 1992. All that life bound up in his backyard seemed like a sign of something, maybe reverence, maybe hope. As he says, “Nature took its place, and everything’s doing well.”

spend protecting it. In the past decade, he’s paid careful attention to how powerful social media has become in raising awareness about water quality and habitat degradation in Florida. “We’re able to instantly reach people with a message,” he says. Of course, whether that message is simply shared or carefully considered is another story completely. He points to surveys that reveal how less than 15 percent of Floridians are aware of water issues affecting them, and he adds that without more awareness there would be no political momentum to alter policy. And ultimately, that’s where he feels the focus should remain. “The only way we can solve these problems is politically.”

Over the past few years, it seems that any campaign aimed at restoration efforts or water quality with a fishing bent in Florida has tapped Pallot as its ambassador. That’s in large part because of the sway his voice carries but also how articulate Pallot can be when it comes to issues regarding conservation. While he will likely be remembered for his writing, the storytelling bound up

Dr. Lloyd Wruble

in his television show, and as a mentor to generations of anglers, these past few years might amount to him being remembered as the heart of an effort to protect the inimitable habitats and fisheries all throughout Florida. As he has said many times to many people, “If you don’t know something, you can’t love it. And if you don’t love something, you can’t protect it.”

As Jeff Harkavy, a founding member of BTT and chair of the Circle of Honor Committee, says, “The Circle of Honor embraces those who have taken their passion for the sport and tried to use their influence of energy, their knowledge, and their skills to help protect the resource.” As to what this all means to Pallot, he shies away from saying much, calling himself a “fair” fisherman and outdoorsman, but the recognition by his peers is the ultimate honor in his mind.

Captain Billy Knowles

2023 Circle of Honor Guide/Angler Award (Posthumous)

When he was 10, Rob Fordyce stared across the patio at the Lorelei in Islamorada and felt spellbound. It was the first time he met Billy Knowles, and he remembers looking at his worn hands, his tan, and leaving breakfast that morning haunted. “I wanted to be that guy,” he says.

A decade later, Fordyce found himself there outside the Lorelei as a guide, talking to Knowles in the dark before they left the dock. Over the years, their casual conversations formed the compass for Fordyce’s own career, among others. From Knowles, he learned how to fish certain spots, what lines to draw on what tides, from the back of Shark River to the Marquesas. The history of the sport and the culture was something you couldn’t find in books or online then, but shared in those quiet moments before the world woke up. As Fordyce says, the flies, the spots, the knots—all of it—grew out of the years that Knowles came up as a guide, and so he listened carefully any time Knowles cared to tell him about it.

One morning in the dark, Knowles told him, “You know a lot of guides only respect the other guides and the spots they’re fishing at the time they’re fishing them.” At first, he didn’t understand, before Knowles added, “Just because there’s not a guy fishing on a bank in the backcountry, doesn’t mean the tarpon aren’t swimming that bank.” It was a sentiment bound up in a certain class of guides: respect and care for fellow guides and anglers that make up the community, but more importantly, make sure you show an exponential amount of respect to the fish that compose the fishery. And all throughout the Keys, guides will tell you stories like that about Billy Knowles, that he taught them not to run their engines in certain basins, to pole in and out of spots, and to avoid running a flat only because you could.

Born in 1940, Knowles started guiding in 1961, and what follows in fast forward is a long list of accolades. It’s the perfunctory resume that includes celebrity clients, tournament wins, and awards, but that seems to miss a more meaningful point. Billy Knowles became a waypoint in a constellation that every guide in Florida traces today, part and parcel of the culture, the history, and the infrastructure. As Fordyce says, “They invented the flies, the spots. They figured out the patterns of fish, where the fish traveled from and came to.” But maybe most meaningfully, Knowles was not just a thoughtful guide or a guides’ guide but rather a generous one. “Billy was very open and sharing with everybody,” Fordyce says, “Not just me.” Knowles passed away in January. Three days earlier, he’d been out fishing.

Michael Adno works for The New York Times, National Geographic, and The Bitter Southerner, where he won a James Beard Award in 2019. He lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Flip Pallot.

Photo: T. Edward Nickens

Photo: Mill House Podcast

Opposition Mounts to Over-Water Development on Turneffe Atoll

BY CHRIS SANTELLA

Big Flat, at the southern end of Belize’s Turneffe Atoll, part of the Meso-American Reef, has thrilled generations of anglers. As the atoll’s largest backreef flat, it has nurtured bonefish, permit and tarpon for thousands of years; for the last 40 years, it has also sustained the economy that’s emerged to guide, feed, transport and house the thousands of anglers who travel here.

But if a proposed development is approved, Big Flat—and its surrounding ecosystem—will be forever altered.

The proposed development, known as Deadman Caye Group Resort-Turneffe, would consist of 22 cabanas (12 of them over the water), restaurant and workers quarters, a wastewater treatment system and elevated walkways connecting the three islets resting west of the flat. According to the Environmental and Social Impact Statement prepared by Tunich-Nah Consultants & Engineering on behalf of MML Investment LTD., the project would require considerable dredging (“under 1,000 cubic meters”) and “clearance of approximately 20% of terrestrial flora to place buildings.” Many specifics—where and how the property will store water (estimated at over 750,000 gallons annually), where wastewater will be discharged and where solar panels will be placed, for example—are not addressed in the report.

Not surprisingly, the environmental and flats fishing communities have been less than enthusiastic about the project.

“The backreef is a critical part of the atoll’s reef structure and an important feeding area for bonefish and permit,” said Dr. Addiel Perez, Belize-Mexico Program Manager for Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. “And the flats adjoining the proposed development would be severely impacted by dredging. The mangroves here

provide important habitat for juvenile reef fish. Any disruption of the flats will also impact the coral reef. Over-the-water structures are particularly harmful because they disrupt habitat continuity, causing habitat fragmentation.”

It’s hard to overstate the economic importance of flats fishing for Belize. A study in 2014-15 showed that anglers’ pursuit of bonefish, permit and tarpon generates more than 112 million Belizean dollars annually, and supports over 2,100 jobs. (An earlier economic study in 2008 led Belize to codify catch-andrelease regulations for the three species.) Turneffe Atoll possesses about 14.7 percent of Belize’s 116,136 acres of coral reefs and 11.7 percent of the 237,094 acres of the country’s mangrove forests. The storm protection the atoll’s coral reefs and mangrove forests provide for the coast of mainland Belize (particularly Belize City) is valued at approximately BZ $380 million.

“Overall, this development is just a terrible idea,” said Craig Hayes, who founded and serves as the Board Chairman for the conservation group Turneffe Atoll Trust, and operates Turneffe Flats Lodge. “The reef ecosystem is not just the coral, the reef includes the forereef, the reef crest and the back reef. This proposed over-the-water structure is actually planned on the reef. It’s a terrible precedent. If this project is allowed, developers will be able to make a case for building on any flat on the eastern side of Turneffe, and elsewhere in Belize.” Another developer on the other end of Big Flat, Hakimi’s Dive Haven, has recently applied for a major expansion to include over-the-water structures and major mangrove deforestation.

Hayes pointed out that Belize has many good laws in place to protect coastal environments like Big Flat. “In order to push

Anglers travel from the around the world to fish the flats of Turneffe Atoll. Photo: Turneffe Flats

forward, they’d have to violate a number of the established laws,” Hayes continued. The project also appears to fly in the face of a number of government dictates:

• The Turneffe Islands Development Guidelines (adopted by the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute [CZMAI] in 2003) specifically address over-the-water development, stating “Over-the-water closed structures should not be allowed at Turneffe.”

• The Turneffe Atoll Coastal Zone Management Guidelines (developed by the CZMAI with input from stakeholders and regulators) state: “Due to the economic and ecological importance of Turneffe’s fringe reefs, patch reefs and backreef flats, management of Turneffe Atoll should ensure the integrity and health of these areas is carefully protected,” and, “Over the water closed-structures should be prohibited on Turneffe Atoll; particularly those which include bathroom facilities,” and finally, “development practices that damage commercial fishing and sport fishing habitats, particularly the backreef flats and seagrass beds, must be prevented.”

Turneffe Atoll is home to robust propulations of bonefish. Photo: Turneffe Flats

An aerial view of the proposed construction sites. Source: Tunich-Nah Consultants & Engineering

• The proposed plan calls for removal of 20 percent of mangroves in the development area. Chapter 213 of the Substantive Laws of Belize states that a permit shall only be granted if “the proposed alteration is not contrary to the public interest, and further that “even if the alteration degrades or changes the environment, such action will be, on the whole, beneficial and in the larger and long-term interests of the people of Belize.”

Turneffe Atoll Trust has successfully halted other projects deemed environmentally destructive by bringing lawsuits compelling the government to enforce its laws. “We’re prepared to do so again if the project is approved,” Hayes added. As with so many societal challenges—conservation and otherwise—the outcome of the proposed development at Big Flat hangs in large part on the question of balancing short- and longterm benefits and consequences. This is certainly one way that the Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association (TASA) frames its analysis of the development. (TASA was established in 2012 to co-manage the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve with the Belizean government.)

“TASA’s mandate is the day-to-day management of the reserve to sustain its long-term well-being, within the limits of established legislation which is there to protect unique coastal environments such as the Turneffe Atoll,” said Valdemar Andrade, TASA’s Executive Director. “We are committed to maximizing the reserve’s economic output for the well-being of Belizeans while maintaining its ecosystem resiliencies. We need to ensure that we’re looking at balance of return on investment for any activities. Belize is largely a natural resource-based economy, and the flats fishery is a big part of that. We have to weigh the short-term gains for a few versus long-term gains for the many; oftentimes, the larger group of people don’t have a voice.”

TASA, Andrade was quick to say, is not anti-development. “We’re open to speaking with developers,” he added. “But they need to operate within the regulations. Many times, developers are only looking at short-term revenue generation. They’re not considering potential damage to the ecosystem and the livelihoods and revenues they currently support in their natural state.”

TASA has gone on record to oppose the project, as it “is not in keeping with the designation of Turneffe Atoll as a Marine Reserve and would not be consistent with the tenets of the reserve as a designated protected area and the guidelines and regulations that are in place to guide development.”

“I believe that the Belizean government needs to make balanced decisions that benefit both local stakeholders and the economy—decisions that are beneficial in the long-term,” added Dr. Perez from BTT. “Yes, a new resort would create jobs and building materials would be sold in the short-term. But the ecological impact of the over-the-water development at Big Flat will have dire consequences for the economy in the long-term.”

Chris Santella is the author of 21 books, including the popular “Fifty Places” series from Abrams. He’s a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and TROUT.

Turneffe Atoll is known for its permit fishing. Photo: Turneffe Flats

THE BIG PICTURE

BY CHRIS HUNT

Anglers fish along the edge of the Everglades near Marco Island. Photo: Nick Shirghio

The ocean is big. Often, from the perch on a flats skiff or from the seat on a kayak—or even standing on the beach and looking out at the sea—it appears as if it’s impermeable. Almost like Teflon. What could possibly screw this up?

Unfortunately, for generations, the notion that the sea was just too big to trash resulted in an indifferent approach to marine conservation. Certainly, we’ve seen over the years how human impacts have taken a toll on marine fish populations, along with habitat and water quality. We’ve watched as groundfish populations crashed. Then, with restraint and management, we watched as those fish stocks rebounded. For many of the world’s fisheries, we are still looking for that management “sweet spot.”

It’s possible, though, that at least part of the complicated solution to marine conservation lies with the very people who pull from the ocean, either for sustenance or for sport. Anglers who are seeing the very real—and very harmful—impacts humans inflict on the waters they fish are in the midst of an awakening. Yes. Fish stocks matter and the harvest-to-releaseto-bycatch calculus must still be considered. Management has its role to play.

But what about habitat? What about water quality? Can we really address troubled fisheries without addressing the state of the waters in which they swim? After all, water is the most important habitat, but also important are the habitats that provide shelter from predation, places to find prey, and safe places to spawn.

For Bonefish & Tarpon Trust—and the avid anglers who comprise its membership—the answer to that question is an emphatic “no.” Just as in any brand of conservation on land, habitat in the ocean—be it inshore in hidden mangrove hideaways, along beaches and coastal cuts or far out at sea— matters more than just about anything else. To communicate better with anglers of all stripes who chase fish from Florida to the far reaches of the Caribbean, BTT has one simple message: Intact habitat creates opportunity.

It’s simple really. The healthier the habitat, the better the fishing.

But for BTT, before the organization could dive into the whole “making fishing better” effort through boots-on-theground restoration, it first had to understand the fish it wished to protect. Since its inception in 1997, BTT has always relied on science to guide its conservation work. In fact, for the first few years of its existence, BTT was almost solely focused on working to understand the life histories of bonefish, tarpon and permit, with the hopes of being able to put the data its staffers collected to use in fisheries management.

“When BTT was established 25 years ago, very little was known about the flats fishery,” said Jim McDuffie, BTT’s President and CEO. “We couldn’t take conservation action without science.”

Throughout its 25-year history, as BTT obtained more scientific information about the fish and their habitats, the organization applied it to conservation and management. Examples of this include regulating bonefish as catch-andrelease-only in Florida, and the creation of the Special Permit Zone (SPZ) for permit in the Florida Keys. This hyperfocus on conducting research with the specific intent of applying the results to conservation and management has been at the core

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s approach to habitat restoration benefits sportfish and coastal ecosystems while creating more angling opportunities.

of BTT’s mission since Day 1. Now, as BTT’s resources grow, the group is stepping up its efforts to influence conservation and management with the latest research data.

“Habitat continues to be the top priority for us,” said Kellie Ralston, BTT’s Vice President for Conservation and Public Policy. And, with the organization armed with reams of scientific data, it’s ramping up efforts toward habitat restoration. “I think we’re building on the habitat work we’ve done and taking advantage of the political terrain to strike while the iron’s hot. BTT’s research, combined with work done by others on habitat restoration, is increasing momentum in support of BTT’s focus on flats species that brings broader benefits. It’s a holistic approach that is bearing fruit.”

Ralston said that in addition to the long habitat focus, BTT is putting more emphasis on water quality, as well as the conservation of important forage fish, like menhaden. Menhaden not only provide essential prey for migratory tarpon that BTT is working to conserve and restore, but can also be a health indicator for ecosystems in general. This broad ecological approach is the foundation of BTT’s philosophy toward conservation. If the ecosystem is healthy, the fish populations that rely on the ecosystem will be healthy. This includes the species we like to fish for, from tarpon to redfish, snook to bonefish.

“If that makes fishing folks happy, that’s a nice benefit,” she said.

But, as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. BTT started modestly. At first, the organization worked to pluck the lowhanging fruit. It started by working with fisheries management agencies both in the U.S. and abroad to put catch-and-release regulations in place for bonefish, tarpon and permit, with significant success. In the Florida Keys, BTT advocated for the creation of the SPZ to improve management for the prized species in state waters.

One of the Coral Creek canals post restoration. Photo: FWC

BTT scientist JoEllen Wilson records numbers of juvenile snook and tarpon in the restored Coral Creek canal system.

Photo: FWC

In the Bahamas, the organization successfully advocated for high-quality bonefish habitats to be protected as national parks, and in 2015, using BTT data, the island nation did just that, adding a host of new national parks, with four designated on Abaco alone.

Back in the states, as the solutions to the ecological challenges facing South Florida became better understood, BTT chimed in, again with its science, starting around 2016. Today, Everglades restoration efforts are under way—barriers like the Tamiami Trail highway that slices across the River of Grass are being breached by bridges and culverts to allow fresh water to move south through the ’Glades and eventually into Florida Bay. The hope is that clean, freshwater inflow will help lower some environmental red flags, like the seagrass die-offs that have occurred thanks to unnatural conditions. If it works, and that oncepristine habitat again becomes fully functional, the fishing will rebound, too.

Science goes a long way, and there are no plans to change the scientific foundation of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. But restoration…that’s the big leagues. When an organization goes beyond consultation, scientific or otherwise, to prioritizing moving dirt and channeling water into places where it’s needed, that’s a significant step. First, it costs more, and BTT has the backing

of its members and donors, and leading fishing companies and boat manufacturers. The organization has also partnered with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), which contributes much of the funding needed to reconnect habitats, like mangrove wetlands, that were disconnected from tidal flows by previous human development like roads. BTT is working closely with its state and other partners to implement the actual restoration.

And that’s where BTT is today. Yes, it most certainly is a science-based non-profit that focuses heavily on prized tropical gamefish. But it’s taken that step up, moving dirt, funneling water and doing so with science as its guide.

RESTORING ROOKERY BAY

In Southwest Florida, near Naples, roads have blocked the exchange of seawater into the mangrove marshes behind the roadways for decades.

“Mangrove marshes provide a plethora of environmental goodness,” said JoEllen Wilson, BTT’s Juvenile Tarpon Habitat Manager. “They provide nursery habitat for tarpon, and are essential habitat for many others species as well.”

Tarpon spawn offshore, sometimes miles into the blue water. The larvae eventually make their way inshore and into these tight tidal creeks and mangrove swamps. Here, they’re safe from most ocean predators and, of course, the environment is rich with insect larvae and small baitfish as the prey base. Here, they can grow with a lower chance of being eaten by a predator.

“It’s a sanctuary,” Wilson said. “It’s where little tarpon grow, so they can eventually be those tarpon that daisy-chain across the flats and cause blood-pressure spikes among the angling community.”

But that sanctuary in parts of Rookery Bay is largely inaccessible to the larvae—seawater crashes off the shell-based roads and never makes it into the marshes, and that means the larvae don’t either. And the water trapped behind the roads becomes stagnant, slowly killing the mangroves. BTT’s previous work led by Wilson showed that restoring the tidal connectivity to these marshes is the best way to improve that habitat—and, eventually, the fishing.

Rookery Bay, Florida. Photo: Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (RBNERR)

Coral Creek during the restoration. Photo: SWFWMD

Using NFWF grant funding and the assessment that shows historical flows from the Gulf of Mexico into the marshes, Wilson and company are poised to begin a modest-in-scale project that could deliver outsized results. The project is set to start in 2022, using a $250,000 matching grant from NFWF and $250,000 from the State of Florida.

“There are culverts there,” Wilson said of the target restoration area, “but they’re not strategically placed, so flows were disrupted. The plan is to create a more natural flow system that benefits the fish.”

And “the fish” aren’t just tarpon. Everything from redfish, black drum, and speckled trout stand to benefit from the habitat improvement work. And then, of course, there’s snook, the prized Florida gamefish that anglers love to pursue.

“Snook have a similar life history to tarpon,” Wilson said. “We combined our data with data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for Charlotte Harbor, and determined that if we protect habitats for juvenile snook, we also provide protection for 55 other species. This makes snook an ‘umbrella species,’ which essentially means that by protecting habitats important to snook, many other species are protected—they occur under the snook’s habitat ‘umbrella.’ This is a concept we adapted from work previously done with land animals. We are hopeful that this approach gains momentum in the marine fish world.”

And this may be the most important aspect of it all. While BTT is mission-driven to focus its work on tarpon conservation, the end result is one that benefits many native inshore fish in the region.

“This is where all the production happens,” she said. But maybe the ultimate beneficiaries? Anglers, of course.

The Rookery Bay restoration project will help restore tidal flow to vital juvenile fish habitat. Photo: RBNERR

Juvenile snook collected during sampling. Photo: FWC

JUVENILE TARPON CONSERVATION IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

An ongoing study in the estuaries and coastal creeks of Southwest Florida is one where BTT cut its restoration teeth. Starting in 2016, the organization enlisted the help of inshore anglers to help identify areas with significant populations of juvenile tarpon. The idea was to identify the habitats used by juvenile tarpon, determine which locations were still in good shape (so they could be protected), and prioritize degraded areas for restoration.

And BTT got the help it needed. Using confidential data from anglers, usually via GPS coordinates, Wilson was able to locate many areas where juvenile tarpon were, indeed, seeking sanctuary during their first couple of years. But not all those areas offered ideal habitat. Some habitats were degraded, so juvenile tarpon had slow growth rates. Slower growth rates meant that when the tarpon left these nursery habitats after two years, they were small enough to be eaten by more predators than if they had grown to a larger size. Still others had baby tarpon in them, but not all year. The challenge was finding habitat that supported ideal tarpon growth and year-round habitat.

“With habitat restoration, ideally we want to mimic natural nursery habitats that have thriving juvenile populations,” Wilson wrote in a March 2017 edition of Coastal Angler Magazine. But she was also quick to note that those ideal habitats were harder and harder to find amid the rapid human population growth and the development that comes with it.

“Due to the extensive amount of coastal development in our area and around the state, juvenile tarpon are already working at a deficit,” she wrote. “By impacting the juvenile populations, we are undeniably affecting the adult fishery.”

But the enlisted help arrived—and it continued to do so. Volunteers like Capt. Josh Greer, owner of West Wall Outfitters in Southwest Florida, turned out to help Wilson in her search for ideal tarpon habitat—the models BTT could use to emulate when it came time to engage in restoration work.

Greer got involved in Wilson’s work after the state purchased an inshore parcel of land that was slated for development. The developers, prior to selling the land, constructed a series of canals, and Greer volunteered to help Wilson and others determine if and how the canals were impacting juvenile tarpon habitat.

“We seined and netted both tarpon and snook,” Greer said. Then, he explained, the team put electronic tags in some of the fish to determine when and where they entered and exited the canals. “We wanted to find out what habitat was performing the best.”

His efforts helped reveal that the canals aren’t necessarily fish killers; they did provide some benefits to juvenile tarpon and snook.

“There is some productivity there,” Greer said. “But while that deep water offers access to the estuaries for the fish, it also allows access for predators. We learned that mimicking the natural habitat is best, and that baby tarpon are better protected in shallower waters.”

Greer is a guide—perhaps the best profession in the region to gauge the impacts of human development in coastal areas. He follows numerous environmental issues in the region, from phosphate mining in the Peace River drainage to the challenges that impact coastal estuaries in the Caloosahatchee River drainage thanks to discharges into the river from Lake Okeechobee. Both rivers enter the Gulf of Mexico, often carrying nutrient loads that contribute to the ongoing spate of red tide

events plaguing the region.

And, of course, Greer is keenly interested in Everglades restoration, which isn’t a direct BTT project, but is based on science.

“It’s really just a political will issue,” he explained of the conservation tapestry in South Florida. “If the politicians do their jobs like they’re supposed to do, we can solve these problems. The science is 30 years old. Why are we dragging our feet?”

Anglers like Greer are seeing the impacts and helping concoct solutions. But is it enough?

BAHAMAS MANGROVE RESTORATION

Hurricane Dorian was brutal. In late summer of 2019, it parked over Abaco and Grand Bahama for well over 24 hours, boasting sustained winds of 185 mph. It killed at least 74 people and left tens of thousands homeless. It’s regarded as the worst natural disaster in the history of the Bahamas, and its impacts are still felt to this day.

Justin Lewis, a Bahamian fisheries biologist from Grand Bahama, recalls hearing about the disaster while he was on vacation in Western Canada. “I’ve never felt so helpless in my life,” he said. “I was angry and heartbroken. I really needed to be there, but because of the storm, I couldn’t get a flight home.”

A scientist inserts a transmitter into a juvenile tarpon to track its movements. Photo: BTT

Lewis has worked for BTT for seven years as the organization’s Bahamas Initiative Manager, but the last three years, in the wake of Dorian, have likely been his most eventful. With the help of generous private donations, Lewis has been able to enlist fishing guides on Grand Bahama and Abaco in an effort to restore the mangroves that Dorian devastated. It might seem odd for a conservation group to focus on replanting a species that can reestablish itself rather quickly thanks to the way it reproduces (red mangroves drop seeds called propagules that are carried by currents and build new habitat when they take root), but the storm’s sustained winds denuded virtually every mangrove on the eastern end of Grand Bahama.

“Mangroves are our first line of defense against storms,” Lewis said. “They can stop as much as 60 percent of wave action from a storm. That’s huge. Plus, this wasn’t a normal hurricane. Normally, a hurricane will cause damage, but only to a limited area. So mangroves that escaped damage can provide propagules to the damaged areas. Dorian destroyed or severely damaged nearly 69 square miles of mangroves, so there weren’t many mangrove trees left to provide propagules.”

Additionally, mangroves are fish factories, both for juvenile gamefish and for prey—like small fish and crabs—that feed the predators of the flats. Without them, the habitat is austere and entire islands are left largely unprotected from the next named storm that comes barreling across the Atlantic.

To date, Lewis said, BTT and its flotilla of guides and volunteers has planted more than 20,000 mangroves around Grand Bahama and Abaco. “They’re very important,” Lewis said of the mangroves

of the Bahamas. “Without them, it’s possible some of our small islands wouldn’t even be islands at all.”

The work, too, has helped the wounded economy of the region. Not only did Dorian level the region’s mangroves, it crippled communities. Hotels and fishing lodges were flattened and guides and support staff were suddenly without work. In a nation where flats angling alone contributes more than $169 million to the economy every year, Dorian was just plain sinister.

But, thanks to BTT’s Northern Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project, guides are able to earn fees for full days when they assist in the replanting effort. “It’s a win for everybody,” Lewis said. And, in a time when the wins seem harder to come by, that’s significant.

THE BIG PICTURE

Ralston, from her office in Tallahassee, oversees BTT’s application of science to policy, and she’s getting some great support from the organization, its members and, more importantly, its donors. “Everything I’ve asked for,” she said, “I’ve gotten.”

And in order to put BTT’s world-class science to work on the ground in the waters of South Florida and across the Caribbean, it’s going to take some significant resources. The investment, Ralston said, is already paying off in the form of the smaller projects that BTT is busy identifying and scoping for potential implementation.

“There’s a lot of excitement right now,” she said. “It’s been great to see how our science is working on the ground and informing policy.”

BTT Bahamas Initiative Manager Justin Lewis replants mangroves on Abaco.

Photo: Zaria Dean / Bahamas National Trust

She openly admits that BTT’s plans on the restoration front are ambitious. But she’s approaching the effort wisely. “We’re identifying our restoration needs by looking at small-scale, but impactful, individual projects first,” she said. “We want to get the best bang for our buck.”

Ralston said several smaller-scale projects are slated to be completed within the next five years, and that the expected success of those projects will help BTT seek more grant funding and do more work to improve habitat for the prized game fish it’s mission-driven to protect and restore.

“We’re building momentum,” she said. “And we’re seeing recreational anglers as allies in conservation. We’d love for it all to come together under one umbrella, and I think we’re already seeing that with Everglades restoration.”

The Everglades work isn’t, by definition, a BTT project, but it does provide an example of stakeholders coming together in an effort to solve a big-picture problem. That may be the momentum Ralston talks about.

But it’s also the potential—it proves anglers, biologists and policymakers can work together toward a common goal. “We’re on the cusp of seeing some huge progress,” Ralston said. “And that’s progress we can build on in the future.”

Chris Hunt is an award-winning journalist and author whose latest work includes The Little Black Book of Fly Fishing (with Kirk Deeter) and Catching Yellowstone’s Wild Trout. His work has appeared in Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, TROUT, The New York Times, Hatch Magazine, The Fly Fish Journal and other publications. He lives and works in Idaho Falls, ID.

Volunteers replant mangroves on Abaco. Photo: Zaria Dean / Bahamas National Trust

Mangroves provide essential bonefish habitat. Photo: Justin Lewis

Catering to the World’s Most Discerning Fly Fishers

(AND THOSE WHO HAVE NO INTEREST IN FISHING WHATSOEVER)

Through the Guides Conservation Captain Q&A

Captain Andrew Tipler

President, Lower Keys Guides Association

Cudjoe Key, Florida

When did you switch from being an offshore guide to a flats guide, and what prompted the transition?

I moved to the Keys in the early 2000s after spending my spring breaks and summer vacations trailering my aluminum jon boat down to the KOA on Sugarloaf. The flats of the Lower Keys had this mysterious draw on me. I got a job at a marina and spent all my free time exploring the backcountry. After getting my captain’s license, I started guiding flats part-time and running boats for the Boy Scouts in order to fill my schedule. In 2004 I bought an offshore boat and went to full-time independent guiding. My plan was to guide offshore in the cooler months and flats the rest of the year. This worked for a while and I was satisfied.

When my daughter was born, I found myself in a period of internal reflection. The impact I felt that I was having on the fishery felt unsustainable and I had been moving further from what had originally drawn me to the Keys. I started moving back in the direction of a backcountry guide. It’s hard to give up more than half of your business all at once and a bay boat along with my flats skiff helped with the transition. I became more involved with the Lower Keys Guides Association (LKGA) recognizing that they had a desire to protect and improve our fishery. Becoming more involved with the LKGA family became one of the greatest turning points in my life. I am very proud of the work that we have accomplished and the friendships that have formed. I feel new purpose in my life.

What changes have you noticed in the flats fishery since you became a guide?

I have great reluctance in negativity, but it’s hard not to think of what we all feel was the good old days. As for myself, when I first experienced our fishery, I was seeing it for the first time and that experience is my baseline. I feel I know more than when I first started, but don’t necessarily find more fish. There are multiple factors at play here. More boats, more people, declining stocks, habitat and water quality issues. This brings me back to my point of internal reflection. I feel there is a motion for conservation, preservation and improvement of our inshore fishery that is yet to be discovered in many fisheries. I sincerely hope this trend spills over.

Tell us about the Lower Keys Guide Association. What is the mission of LKGA?

LKGA was formed in 2004 by a loose collection of fishing guides who felt the need to protect the resource and by default our way of life. Since its inception, LKGA has quietly worked hard behind the scenes. The organization has grown and so has its reach. As we move into the future, partnerships are how we have the loudest voice. LKGA will continue to quietly work to preserve and hopefully improve the fishery and our voice will continue to get louder. I must give credit where it’s due. I’m only trying to carrying on the traditions of this organization. I have the deepest respect for those who carried the torch before me. They are friends and mentors.

How do LKGA and BTT work together to conserve the Keys’ flats fishery?

LKGA comes to BTT with concerns or problems and asks for solutions. BTT has a wealth of knowledgeable scientists and conservationists.

We come to BTT with our theory and they prove or disprove it through science. This is a pretty basic assessment of our partnership, but where LKGA lacks the scientific capability, we provide the knowledge of close to 100 guides who spend their lives on the water.

Which LKGA accomplishment are you most proud of?

Our growth. There have been a lot of accomplishments both before and during my tenure. Many of these the organization did on its own and many through partnerships. I can’t give extra significance to one individually as its the sum total of these that represents our strength. We have close to 100 guide members and nearly 300 angler members as well as a new youth membership. When we speak or provide comment and input, we do so as the unified voice of our membership.

Why do you feel that it’s important for anglers and guides to be involved in conservation?

We are obligated to protect what we care about. It’s no different than maintaining your house.

What gives you hope for the future of our fishery?

The groundswell of conservation mindset taking hold in fishing. There is an increase in activism and funding. Much of the funding is coming from individuals and organizations. People are becoming more proud of what they do for a fishery than what they catch out of it. This is a mature love that I hope continues to grow.

Do you have any advice on how anglers on the bow can better see bonefish on the flats?

Don’t look for a fish, look for movement.

How do you make a good day of flats fishing during winter in the Keys? What do you like to target?

I love barracuda! We have also experienced an increase in redfish. Additionally, we need to embrace all that our winter fishery has to offer. Jacks, mackerel, bluefish, etc. This is an incredibly diverse fishery.

How long of a leader do you use when you target bonefish? 8-12 ft. Longer and lighter the calmer it is.

What’s your go-to bonefish fly for the Keys?

Wouldn’t you like to know. Just kidding. It’s more presentation than fly. I do like flies that work for both bonefish and permit.

Where should you put the fly if you see bonefish coming down the flat toward the boat?

Lead the fish. It’s like bird hunting. You have to cast to where the fish is going to be, not where it is.

Captain Andrew Tipler and his daughter.

BTT Launches Spawning Permit Monitoring Program in the Florida Keys

BY TOM KEER

The screen door to my room at the Golden Grouper was warped from years of intense sun. Gaps in the frame let in every outside bug and reptile but I didn’t care. I wasn’t at Grassy Key to sit in my room. I was here to catch a permit. And so, a few hours after my arrival I did what any fly rodder would do. I rigged up my rod, walked past the lonely hearts drinking sundowners at the poolside tiki bar, and headed for the flat in front of the motel. An incoming tide combined with a lightvariable Southwester put the sun perfectly at my back. God bless that view.

And He did for a half dozen sickles appeared inside of an hour. They tipped up, then down, and moved towards me in a rinse-

repeat kinda way. I dropped a size 6 Merkin in front of the lead fish before I could be run over by stage fright and saw backing before I could say my two-syllable name twice.

I learned two lessons from landing my first permit in 1994. First, catching a permit on a fly was as easy as hooking a stocked brown trout on a gold Kastmaster. And second, I’d have to make a heck of a lot of casts before I caught another. No matter, for anything done in moderation shows a lack of interest.

We think we hook permit, but the truth is they hook us. Fish hooking fishermen is common in Florida—that’s what makes the Sunshine State #1 in the country for fishing. Nearly 3 million resident anglers are joined by almost a million out-of-staters

to spend upwards of 46 million days on the water. It comes as no surprise that Florida anglers spend over $4 billion annually chasing fish. **

A big change was at hand when members of the Lower Keys Guides Association (LKGA) shared their concerns about declining numbers of permit with Bonefish & Tarpon Trust in the mid-2000s. According to Dr. Ross Boucek, BTT’s Florida Keys Initiative Manager, “Those guides are some of the best in the business, so we take their observations seriously. After that initial discussion,

BTT approached the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) about the decline reported by Keys guides. Our collective plan was to use science to discover the stresses that permit face and then to use that fact-based information to resolve those threats through advocacy and education. Project Permit is the result of that plan.”

Dr. Aaron Adams, BTT’s Director of Science and Conservation, added, “Prior to 2011, permit and pompano were co-regulated. The species were similar enough in appearance that they were managed together, and that left a gap in permit-specific research. Project Permit represented a tremendous opportunity for us to have a positive impact on a declining species while learning more about

A permit spawning aggregation in the Florida Keys. Photo: Dr. Jiangang Luo

Jessica McCawley, the Division Director for Marine Fisheries Management for FWC. “This told us that the SPZ is an appropriate management strategy for the Keys fishery. We then worked with BTT to use acoustic tracking to identify spawning sites, which is what identified Western Dry Rocks as an important spawning location for Lower Keys flats permit.”

Phase Two included the use of state-of-the-art technology to better understand migrations within the SPZ, including between the flats and spawning sites, and permit behavior when they reached Western Dry Rocks. Adams said, “From 2016 through 2021, we worked with research partners at Carleton University using acoustic telemetry and sonar to monitor permit. That technology gave us insight into the number of fish, the size of the fish, and their spawning behaviors. We were able to monitor fish to determine how long permit stayed in an area, and connections between their home ranges on the flats and spawning areas like Western Dry Rocks. That research provided us with a baseline from which we can compare future data. One surprise to us is that many permit arrive one month earlier than previous data indicated. That, as well as other information, was channeled to FWC for use in planning.”

Project Permit shed light on a pressing threat to permit and other species, and the discovery was significant enough to close fishing at WDR. “Multi-species spawning aggregation sites like the Western Dry Rocks are home to many different species of fish,” said McCawley. “There are permit, yellowtail snapper, mutton snapper, gray snapper, schoolmaster, Atlantic spadefish, and others that travel here to spawn during different times of the year. What we learned in our second phase of study was that 39 percent of hooked permit were lost to reef and black tip shark predation. But rather than close the entire area for extended periods of time we used scientific data to arrive at an appropriate compromise. That middle ground was to close WDR for four months during permit spawning season.”

Boucek agrees. “Closing fishing at Western Dry Rocks is not a trivial regulation,” he said. “There are many stakeholders that have cultural ties to that location. One group are multigenerational anglers like parents who have taken their kids and grandkids to fish at WDR. Charter captains are another group, and they rely on fishing at WDR to provide for their families. Losing revenue across four months for three, five or seven years is difficult. But if the permit population continues to decline, then charter fishing in the Keys may suffer for years to come.”

The critical Phase Three, known as the Spawning Permit Monitoring Program, began with a $600,000 investment from BTT. The monitoring began in 2021, and initial results will be reviewed in 2024. The study is being conducted to provide information to FWC for reviews of the effectiveness of the WDR spawning closure that have been mandated at three, five, and seven years after the closure was implemented. If the closure is deemed ineffective after seven years, the FWC Commission may consider ending the

According to Adams, the follow-up research model is as unusual as it is significant. “It’s relatively uncommon to see follow-up research in a lot of conservation projects,” he said. “One school of thought says that kind of work isn’t sexy. The second school of thought suggests that such monitoring is too expensive. But the way we’re looking at the Spawning Permit Monitoring Program is as a template that can be applied over the long term. Follow-up research can be compared to our other benchmarks in both qualitative and quantitative measurements. The scientific community will arrive at an insightful understanding of what worked as well as what needs modification. Our understanding of permit and their breeding habits will be far more substantive than previous information.”

Boucek added, “After you get a big conservation win, most groups don’t follow through and actually determine if the regulation had any real impact. A lot of distrust in science and fisheries management can be traced back to this lack of substantive follow-up research. Without determining the success of the closure, we can’t scientifically determine if the changes in regulation made things better. All we could verify is that we restricted WDR access.”

Research of this magnitude should be conducted by a dream team of experts, and it is. “We have a phenomenal research team executing Phase III,” said Boucek. “In addition to our BTT and FWC teams, we have a research team from Florida International University (FIU), led by post-doctoral researcher Dr. Ben Binder, and associate professor Dr. Kevin Boswell. This group will be

Dr. Ben Binder reels in a permit while Gina Clementi records the angling behavior, schooling activity, and depredation events with a multibeam sonar. Photo: Kirk Gastrich

using state-of-the-art sonar to count the number of permit and estimate their size at Western Dry Rocks across the years to determine if the closure is resulting in more and larger permit. They are also surveying several other spawning aggregation sites open to fishing for comparison. Working alongside FIU, Dr. Jake Brownscombe and Dr. Steven Cooke from Carleton University are continuing their acoustic tracking work. They will learn whether permit at Western Dry Rocks are spending more time there than they did when the place was open to fishing, and whether permit are more likely to revisit the site now that it is a refuge from fishing. So, we’ve assembled a team of leading experts, all focused on a thorough, scientific evaluation.”

Boucek is appreciative of the scientifically researched, thoroughly studied, and cooperative approach to declining permit populations. “FWC is taking this closure seriously,” he said. “They are relying on science to tell them whether or not this closure is working. They’ll review the information after three years in 2024, after five years in 2026, and after seven years in 2028. If recovery is not demonstrated after this timeline, they will reopen the closed area. I appreciate FWC’s approach to this regulation, and it challenges us to do rigorous science to track how the permit aggregation changes over time.”

My friends tell me the Golden Grouper in Marathon is gone. A return trip won’t include air conditioning from a window unit that sounds like a 3 HP outboard. I won’t miss the threadbare sheets and sagging mattress, but I would miss the permit if they weren’t there. Thankfully their future looks good, and it’s all a result of the smart, collaborative work by BTT, FWC and the Keys angling community. I might need to check out some flights…

Tom Keer is a freelance writer who chases striped bass on the flats in front of his Cape Cod home. He also owns The Keer Group, a marketing company that

specializes in the active outdoor sports.

A close encounter with a school of permit at Western Dry Rocks. Photo: Dr. Ben Binder

A hooked permit flees a Caribbean reef shark. Photo edited by Kirk Gastrich.

THE Family BUSINESS

BY T. EDWARD NICKENS

It’s not a bad thing, Brooke Denkert Black insists. But he can be quiet on the poling platform.

“Very quiet,” she says.

When she and her dad, Captain Dave Denkert of Islamorada, Florida, are fishing in a tournament together, there are long periods of time when the only sound is the shsss¬ of the push pole in the sand, and the squawky take-offs of green herons and ibis from the mangroves. “He’s always thinking,” Brooke says, “and the process can be very uneventful. His approach is to have plans A through G rolling around in his head at all times. Well before he’ll say anything, he’s thought it all through very carefully.”

And then, it happens.

“Every once in a while,” Brooke laughs, “I’ll get a hmm out of him. Like, hmm. And that’s a very big moment. That means we are somehow about to take a right angle. You hear that hmm and you know he’s about to change the shape of the day.”

And when Captain Dave Denkert makes a move, it’s typically for a winning reason. The 65-year-old guide is one of the most successful tournament anglers in Florida, having won awards in the legendary Metropolitan Miami Fishing Tournament (MET) as Tarpon Release Master and Inshore Grand Champion, among dozens of other tournament successes. A full-time guide for more 20 years, Denkert has also been a conservation stalwart. He is a founding member of BTT, and has worked with BTT scientists and staff on the organization’s Everglades National Park mapping project, bonefish tagging efforts, and the recent bonefish genetics sampling program.

And along the way, Dave has served as the steadfast patriarch of one of the most decorated families in saltwater flyfishing. His wife, Linda, is a highly accomplished tournament angler; Dave has guided her to MET Grand Champion status, and fishing together, she’s won the Unguided MET Master Angler award three times. She now pursues trophies in the International Women’s Fishing Association (IWFA). Their daughter, Brooke, began fishing in the Florida Keys before she was in kindergarten. In addition to dozens of tournament titles, she holds a master’s degree in environmental science, and was BTT’s first Florida Keys Program Manager, working for BTT from 2012 to June of 2017. In February of 2013, Brooke married another member of what is essentially Florida Keys royalty, fourth-generation Keys native Captain

Richard Black, of Black Fly Charters. Unsurprisingly, the pair met when they were young teens at—where else—a fishing tournament in Islamorada.

It would be hard to imagine another foursome with as much institutional knowledge of South Florida fisheries, just as it’s hard to beat their one-two-three-four punch of fishing know-how on the tournament circuit. But they have more than deep roots in the guiding and angling history of South Florida. They also have a big stake in its future.

**

Dave Denkert grew up a block from Biscayne Bay, and remembers his father dropping him and his brother off on the water on Friday after school, with plans to pick them up on Sunday. “That’s how we learned to fish,” Denkert says. “By fishing. The water was clean, and there was so much coral, sea fans, lobster and seagrasses it’s hard to imagine.” After a stint in college, Dave went to work for a commercial archive company, which stored and serviced business records. For years, he fished and guided nearly every weekend, trailering his boat from Miami. Which is where fate, or destiny, stepped in.

Linda Denkert grew up in Miami, too, where her father was a hardware salesman. That kept him busy on Saturdays, but Tuesdays were set aside for fishing. “Many times, I would take school off that day,” she recalls. “We fished a lot, always in a smaller boat, and I was little and my rod hung over the side with the boat rocking. The boat would literally jig for me, so I always caught a lot of fish.”

Linda clearly remembers the first time she met Dave. He’d purchased a house catty-corner from her family’s home, and she would watch him return from guiding on the weekends. “I thought, now, that’s a good-looking guy,” she laughs. “I started washing my Camaro when it was about time for him to show up in the afternoons. Then I bought a bike and I’d ride around when I knew he was coming home. It was straight-up stalking.”

One afternoon, Denkert turned a corner in his truck and nearly ran over Linda and her bike. “I had to lock the brakes up,” Dave recalls. But Linda’s scheming paid off. They’ve been together ever since, and married in 1983. From the beginning, fishing was a bond. The couple fished the MET together soon after they married. Their first tournament win as a couple came in the mid-90s, during the Fish ‘Til You Lose It Backcountry Fishing Tournament. “That

M.E. Black and her grandfather, Captain Dave Denkert, cruise through the Florida Keys.

was a pretty cool tournament,” Dave says. “You could choose one jig for the entire day, and some people would lose their jig to a shark or a ‘cuda in the first five minutes, and they were done.” It was windy and cloudy all day long, he recalls. “Blowing like snot, just horrendous. But she stood up there firing away hour after hour.” He recalls that she caught four redfish a small snook. “That was the real beginning of her becoming a monster,” he laughs.

In 2001, Dave retired from his corporate job, and began guiding full-time.

Brooke was born in 1985, and it didn’t take long for her to find her place in the family’s fishing-focused lifestyle. By the time she was four or five years old, she would be on Dave’s poling skiff, learning to spot fish.

“I grew up in a working family so we didn’t travel that much,” she says. “But I was on the water sun up to sun down. I have vivid memories of when I was five or six years old, laying on the bottom of my dad’s homemade Challenger skiff, and watching falling stars streak across the sky before the sun came up.”

As a young teenager, Brooke sought the solitude of fishing, and learned that she was completely happy on the flats. “I found a lot of solace in the quietude of flats fishing,” she explains. During college, she brought friends home to introduce them to fishing, and discovered the thrill of mentoring. “I hit that turning point in my angling history fairly young,” she figures. “It wasn’t about the fish as much as sharing the experience. And that hasn’t changed.” **

If there’s a Florida Keys family to match the Denkerts in a fishing focus, it may be the extended family of guide Richard Black. In the late 1890s, Black’s great-grandparents homesteaded Clive Key, just off Flamingo. He grew up listening to his grandmother talk about the family members hunting birds for the plumage trade and gigging redfish with pitchforks. “It was pretty much a subsistence lifestyle,” Richard says, then laughs. “They always had a lot of snook and a lot of lobster, but they wouldn’t eat them. Those were trash fish.”

The family eventually moved to Miami, where Richard was born. Early on, fishing was a consuming passion. In 2005, when he was 11 years old, he entered the Islamorada Fishing Club’s

Brooke releases a Keys bonefish.

Richard and M.E in M.E’s skiff—she sanded, painted, and helped rig it.

Redghost Stalk, a redfish and bonefish tournament for youth and young adults. He didn’t win the tournament, but he did cross paths with an angler who would have a significant impact on his future: Fishing with her father, Brooke Denkert won that year’s Redghost Stalk with eight redfish. “He tells me he fell in love with me that day when I kicked his ass,” Brooke laughs.

Richard had begun guiding during his freshman year at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he also ran on the cross-country team, a combination that made for a frenetic schedule. “It was a crazy whirlwind,” he recalls. He stacked all his classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, then drove home on Wednesday nights to be ready to guide Thursday through Sunday. On Monday morning, he’d wake at 3 a.m. to drive back to Fort Myers in order to make his Monday morning cross-country practice and roll into his first classes at 8 a.m. He dictated papers and assignments into a tape recorder while on the road.

During his junior year, Black suffered an injury that derailed his running career. “When I realized I was not going to get back to a Division I level of competition,” he says, “that’s when I really started fishing a lot.” He had hardly been slacking off the previous few years, but leading a double life as both a college studentathlete and fishing guide sharpened at least one skill set: He’d had a crash course in juggling a crammed calendar. “Multitasking has been a part of my life pretty much from the beginning,” he says. “It’s taught me how to focus. Even on the water, when you have eight hours in a tournament, there’s no time to waste. I think that mindset is grounded in my college years.”

Today, Richard and Brooke run Black Fly Charters, and are raising their eight-year-old daughter, Mecartney “M.E.” Black, the

same way they were brought up: On the water, with a rod in hand and an inquisitive mind searching for the next challenge.

And the tournament hits keep rolling. Last year, mother, daughter, and granddaughter pulled off a three-generation hat trick in the IWFA tournament. Linda won the Kay Rybovich Award, given to the angler who releases the most variety of fish from the organization’s species list in a single year. Brooke won top honors with the Ann D. Crowninshield Award, given each year to the IWFA member who accumulates the most points from the organization’s species list, as well as The Vernon Fly Award, Orvis Total Fly Award, the The Lew’s Plug Award. Nipping at their heels was Emmie, who took top honors as the Junior Angler Top Saltwater Angler Award.

With a million casts or more between them, these four anglers have seen some of the best of times in South Florida. And like many long-time Floridians, they lament the losses witnessed in the short span of their lives. Dave remembers when seagrass blanketed Florida Bay, and speckled trout were abundant all the way to the Florida Panhandle. There were days when so many tarpon were eating shrimp on the surface at the Bahia Honda bridge he says, “that it sounded like people were throwing bowling balls into the water. That’s how much food was coming out of Florida Bay.” Back in the 1970s and 1980s, he recalls, the wind could blow at 20 miles per hour and the water stayed clean. All the seagrass was intact. Now Florida Bay dirties up in a minor blow, he laments.

If there’s a silver lining to Florida’s water woes, Dave says, it’s in the growing conservation emphasis shown by guides and anglers, and the progress made in the last few years. “There are some good things that are happening,” he says. “All of these organizations trying to work on water flow is huge. As guides, we talk about this quite a bit. We’ve been reactive for too long, waiting until things fall apart to try to do something. We need to be proactive.”

That’s a perspective clearly shared by Richard and Brooke Black. After all, they have placed their bets on a future for South Florida fishing that, while it won’t mirror the past, will nonetheless continue to offer world-class angling in a landscape that has no peer in the country.

Like his father-in-law, Richard continues to be deeply involved in BTT’s research. He’s collected fin clips from hundreds of bonefish for BTT’s study of bonefish genetics, and applauds the

M.E. releases a bonefish she landed in the Florida Keys.

Linda, M.E., and Dave surf-fishing off Crescent Beach.

minimal impact nature of the study. “I got pretty good at it,” he laughs. “I could roll a fish over, clip it, and get the whole job done in probably 15 seconds.”

And he’s particularly supportive of BTT’s outreach programs. On these complex conservation issues, he says, with so many stakeholders and interested parties, “communication is the key.” In addition to his prowess on the flats, Richard is a serious offshore angler, which gives him a broad perspective of how the fishing public relates to conservation efforts. The offshore fishing community isn’t always as supportive of some fishing regulations, he says, and finding balance is a matter of understanding

different perspectives. “More conversation needs to happen as decisions and policies are made,” he notes. “There could be greater communication between the groups, and it never hurts to talk.”

What goes without question is the commitment of two generations—and most likely a third—of Florida Keys stalwarts to working for an angling and ecological future for the landscape that has literally provided their livelihoods. Even in the most challenging of circumstances, and with a clear-eyed view of the difficulties facing the habitats they most love, the Denkerts and Blacks remain totally committed to the place they call home. They may bend and sway like a sea fan in a hard tide, but they plan on staying rooted to the archipelago that has nourished their families.

“I’m not always positive,” Brooke admits. “I’m terribly pragmatic, and it doesn’t help that I have a background in biology and environmental science. But I do get flurries of high notes. I love catching juvenile fish, and the smaller the better. From a purely angling perspective, I could care less about a trophy fish. When I’m fishing in the Everglades, all of which is nursery habitat, I get super excited about tiny snook and tiny redfish. I go nuts over a 10-inch bonefish.”

During the COVID pandemic shutdown, Brooke got a glimpse of what is possible for the region’s fisheries. With little fishing pressure in many areas, the bonefish, tarpon, and permit came flooding back. “That’s what keeps me going,” she says, “because that’s when I can see hope. We can batter the environment all we want, but leave it alone and give it a few years and all of a sudden, we have grass and fish. It’s like the rose that comes up in the concrete cracks.”

And if she ever needs a pick-me-up, she’s in a pretty good place to find one. Richard is the glass-half-full type, and insists his enthusiasm for fishing never wavers.

“Honestly, it’s not hard for me to stay positive,” he says. “All these environmental conditions, and fish populations up and down, that’s just an added challenge to what I do.”

In late

Richard landing M.E.’s first sailfish.

M.E. battling her first permit at five years old.

summer, when much of Florida Bay was covered in an algae bloom, Richard took the opportunity to explore places he hadn’t fished in 15 years. “We were catching bonefish and permit all the time.”

Richard has fished throughout the Caribbean, Belize, both coasts of Mexico, and more, and he still insists that “there’s no other place that has the variety of fishing opportunity and the caliber of guides like we have here. I still think the Florida Keys is the best place in the world to fish. I never get dragged down. I never don’t want to go fishing.”

Which sounds like a pretty good family trait to pass along.

An award-winning author and journalist, T. Edward Nickens is editor-at-large of Field & Stream and a contributing editor for Garden & Gun and Audubon magazine.

Dave and Linda.

Richard and M.E. paddling in Dry Tortugas National Park.

M.E. releases an African pompano.

Chet Reneson has been named Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s 2023 Artist of the Year. Reneson was previously recognized with the honor in 2018. His painting Too Hot to Handle will be sold by Copley Fine Art Auctions in Plymouth, MA on February 24 and 25, 2023, with a preview in Charleston, SC for SEWE February 17-19, 2023. Each year since 2011, Copley Fine Art Auctions has sold a new work by BTT’s Artist of the Year to benefit the organization.

An avid hunter and angler since boyhood, Reneson was born in 1934 and grew up on a farm in Colchester, Connecticut. He went on to study art at the University of Hartford, graduating in 1960. His art teacher, Henrik Mayer, emphasized the importance of simplicity and taught the values of light, dark, and strong, which laid the foundation for Reneson’s unmistakable style. His illustrious career began with the sale of a painting at the Crossroads of Sport, Inc. in New York in 1965. Reneson’s formal training, natural talent, and extensive outdoor experience established him as one of the premier sporting artists.

“We are really pleased to have Chet Reneson as our Artist of the Year for a second time,” said Bill Legg, who chairs the Artist of the Year Selection Committee. “I, more so than most, because the first piece of sporting art that I purchased (circa 1971) was a Reneson watercolor of a flock of blue bills tolling in on one of his classic wind driven, cold snowy days. I am now the proud owner of several Renesons, both duck hunting and flats fishing. Chet, thank you for supporting BTT.”

For the past 50 years, Reneson’s painting has remained true

Chet Reneson

to his early mentor’s teaching, encompassing many subjects including wildlife, duck hunting, upland bird shooting, big game fishing, fly fishing, and Bahamian scenes. His work has graced the covers of Sporting Classics, Gray’s Sporting Journal, and Sports Afield, among others. He was named Ducks Unlimited Artist of the Year in 1982 and the Atlantic Salmon Federation Artist of the Year in 1982 and 2001. Additionally, he is a past member of the Connecticut Watercolor Association and the Old Lyme Art Association. Two books have been published on Reneson’s work: Shadow on the Flats and The Watercolors of Chet Reneson.

Chet Reneson. Photo by Christopher Zajac / Courtesy of Estuarymagazine.com

Too Hot to Handle (2022) by Chet Reneson. Acrylic on board, 21 by 35 inches. Signed “Reneson” lower left.

Chet Reneson, Bonefishing | SOLD FOR $10,200

“Dust Jacket” Plover Trio by Elmer Crowell | SOLD FOR $984,000

Mark Susinno, Always on the Move | SOLD FOR $13,200

9th Annual Florida Keys Dinner and Circle of Honor Inductions

Photos: Dan Diez

In the company of angling legends, members, partners and friends, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust inducted Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO Johnny Morris, the late President George H.W. Bush, and the late Captain George Hommell, Jr. into the Circle of Honor on April 21, 2022, at the 9th Annual Florida Keys Dinner in Islamorada. The event was emceed by Andy Mill and featured the premiere of Costa and BTT’s film, A Pathway for Permit.

Morris, a noted conservationist and leader in the outdoor recreational industry, was honored with the Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation. As a founding member of BTT, Morris’ support over the years has made possible important flats research, youth education programs, habitat restoration projects, and disaster relief for fishing guides and coastal communities in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian. In his acceptance speech, Morris recounted his decades-long friendship with his fellow honorees, “the two Georges,” and their shared love of fishing.

Jeb Bush, Jr. gave remarks on behalf of his grandfather, President Bush, who received posthumous induction into the Circle of Honor for important environmental initiatives advanced during his presidency as well as for his flats fishing passion. Under his Administration, Bush established 56 new National Wildlife Refuges; signed the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, which has contributed to the conservation of

almost 30 million acres of North American habitat; and supported key amendments to the Clean Air Act, designed to curb acid rain, urban air pollution, toxic air emissions and stratosphere ozone depletion. He was a frequent visitor to the Florida Keys, where he enjoyed fishing and participating in tournaments that benefitted flats conservation.

President Bush fished regularly with Capt. Hommell, Jr., whose son and daughter, M.E. Hommell and George Hommell III, accepted the award on his behalf. Hommell, a native of Haines Falls, New York, made his way after World War II and Korea to Islamorada, where he began guiding in 1952. He started fishing with President Bush in 1979 and also guided many other notable anglers, including Ted Williams and Dan Rather. In 1967, Hommell launched World Wide Sportsman, Inc., a fly/tackle shop catering to anglers traveling to Islamorada from around the world. As a member of the Islamorada Fishing Guides Association in the 1970s, Hommell was one of the early proponents for catch-andrelease fishing. He advocated for tarpon and bonefish protection and Everglades restoration through World Wide Sportsman, and was a founding member of BTT.

BTT and attendees also paid tribute to the late Capt. Joe Gonzalez, Capt. Travis Holeman, and Capt. Billy Knowles, who was remembered by longtime friend, Capt. Rob Fordyce. The event benefitted the BTT George Hommell Florida Keys Habitat Fund.

Johnny Morris accepts the Lefty Kreh

Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation.

Guests enjoy the event at Cheeca Lodge & Spa.

Jeb Bush, Jr. accepts on behalf of his late grandfather.

M.E. Hommell and George Hommell III accept on behalf of their late father. Andy Mill, Johnny Morris, and BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. Rob Fordyce remembers Billy Knowles.

Joe Rodriquez, Bob Branham, Steve Impallomeni, Bob Beighley, Nick Jones, Will Benson, Andrew Tipler, Chad Huff.

BTT Board member Noah Valenstein, Jen Valenstein, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Shawn Hamilton.

Photo: Pat Ford

PHONE: (434) 953-1775

The Legend Lives On

Fish with the best at the acclaimed All American Backcountry Tournament!

Catch and release snook, redfish, bonefish, tarpon and permit Event honors war heroes and benefits Guides Trust Foundation

Angler, guide and two guests enjoy two social events at Cheeca Lodge & Spa along with breakfast and lunch each day

Sponsorships available

Pocket Water

The Pogy Problem

BY CAPTAIN TY HIBBS

Being born and raised in South Louisiana, you tend to get spoiled when it comes to redfishing. When I was younger, redfish were an afterthought on days we struggled to catch speckled trout. It was a “fill the box” mentality. I always tell people about this to portray the conservation mindset in Louisiana. I was lucky enough to have people around me through my young adult life that showed me that there’s more to it than just keeping a limit of fish. I picked it up pretty quickly, especially from many of my flyfishing clients, that these fish are worth way more than being caught just once. Over the past decade, I’ve made it a point to put more effort into taking care of my home, and especially put as much effort as possible into conserving our fisheries, particularly redfish.

Throughout my life, I have watched things change for the worse and for the better in this fishery. Yes, we have a massive issue with the loss of our coastal marshes, limits that haven’t been assessed in over 25 years, and private water access issues, but the thing that I have been trying to shed light on is the menhaden reduction industry here in South Louisiana.

If you’ve never heard of the menhaden reduction industry, here’s a quick rundown of what a menhaden is and how they are used. Menhaden (aka bunker, pogy) are undoubtedly the most important fish in the Gulf of Mexico. They are found in massive schools and primarily eat plankton and algae. Menhaden are often called “The Most Important Fish in the Sea” because everything eats them. Birds, sharks, crabs, tarpon, redfish, trout—the list goes on forever. Everything that lives in the Gulf, and marshes that the Gulf supports, encounters pogies at some point in their lives as food. This holds true for tarpon, which, like so many other species, rely on menhaden as a food source. Without the presence of this fish in our ecosystem, it would simply collapse.

Menhaden are harvested for different types of pet foods and fish oil products, which can be produced without the use of menhaden. Two of the main companies have reduction plants in south Mississippi, west Louisiana, and southeast Louisiana. They send giant boats out daily with spotter planes that locate the massive pogy schools and tell the boats where to go. Once the mothership is near the school, the ship sets off two smaller vessels that surround the school with a huge purse seine net sealed from the bottom to capture the school. The problem then lies not only with the sheer number of menhaden that they catch but also with the bycatch.

I have seen these boats around my whole life, but I never got close enough to know what was happening. Over the past five years, these boats have been run out of coastal waters on

the East Coast, Mississippi, Alabama, and pushed far off the coast of Texas. They are not allowed in state waters of Florida at all. They harvest most of their yearly catch in the shallow coastal waters of South Louisiana. With more of these boats fishing our waters, it has led to a clash between recreational and commercial fishermen in recent years. The problem I have is that many species of sport fish that are chasing these pogy schools, including redfish, are inadvertently captured by the boats’ massive nets and subsequently killed by either mishandling in the nets or from the vast amount of sediment kicked up by these gigantic boats in such shallow water.

I have seen so many times—mainly in the late summer and early fall—these boats work near or on the beaches and passes, in the same places we are fishing for breeder size redfish, and then leave behind acres of dead bull redfish, trout, jacks, tarpon, shrimp and crabs. What bothers me the most is the number of mature redfish killed by these boats. Thinking about the future redfish these bull reds could have produced is upsetting. These boats are allowed ten percent bycatch. The industry catches around a billion pounds of menhaden per year. Do the math on that and let me know what you think of the amount of fish other than pogies, mostly redfish, that are killed as bycatch. To get even more technical, the bycatch they claim is only what comes onto the boat through the giant vacuum tube that puts the menhaden in the boat. It does not include the fish entangled and smashed by the net, killed due to sediment overload in their gills, or mishandled upon release.

Now look, I am not saying we should eliminate this industry and rid the people who work for them of their jobs. I do believe they are hurting our fishery more than we are being led to believe, and that we need to accumulate the appropriate data to ensure that it can be regulated and done sustainably without hurting other aspects of our fishery. For this industry being one of the biggest, if not the biggest, commercial fishing operations in the country, I find it pretty wild that we have not been stricter on how they operate as well as where they operate. It’s one of the most under-regulated commercial fishing operations. I’d like to uncover the effects on the fishery and determine we can do to protect our state and every fish living in it.

This place is my home, where I was born and raised, where I will raise my kids, and where I show thousands of people a year its incredible fishery. I hate the whole “doom and gloom” narrative, and hopefully, this is not the way you interpret this. Still, the reality is, if we keep treating this fishery like an indestructible fortress that provides us with an endless amount of resources, then even here, the greatest fishery on Earth will become a place that once was. I don’t want to hear “the good ole days are gone.” I believe with enough education and well-thought-out conservation efforts, the good ole days can be ahead of us.

A Florida Keys shoreline fringed with mangroves. Photo: Ian Wilson

Crush barbs and pick up stream-side trash. Volunteer skills, money and time. Fight for access and vote your conscience. Even our smallest efforts build a future for wild fish, clean water and an inclusive community. It’s not too late. It’s never too early. It’s every day. We are all wild fish activists.

A hungry mob of chunky Everglades redfi sh begin the day nose down and oblivious. Jason Stemple © 2022 Patagonia, Inc.