Bonefish & Tarpon Journal - Fall 2020

INSIDE: KEYS BONEFISH COMEBACK • BAHAMAS MANGROVE RESTORATION • TRACKING THE SILVER KING

A publication of

Journal BONEFISH & TARPON

CONSERVATION THROUGH SCIENCE • FALL 2020

O h ! T he P la c es T h ey T a k e You ...

Partners In Preserving The Fish And The Places They Roam.

A publication of

Journal BONEFISH & TARPON

Editorial Board

Dr. Aaron Adams, Harold Brewer, Bill Horn, Jim McDuffie

Editorial Board

Dr.Publication Aaron Adams, Sarah TeamCart, Bill Horn, Harold Jim McDuffie, Navarre Publishers: Brewer,Carl Jim McDuffie Managing Editor: Alex Lovett-Woodsum Publication Team Consulting Editors: Bob Baal, Nick Roberts Publishers: Carl Navarre, McDuffie Layout and Design: ScottJim Morrison, Editor: Nick Roberts Morrison Creative Company Editorial Coordinator: Assistant: Miranda Wolfe Advertising Mark Rehbein Layout and Design: Scott Morrison, Morrison Creative Company

Photography

Cover: Tosh Brown Contributors

Aaron AdamsPh. D. Aaron Adams, Jacob Brownscombe Matt Ajemian, Ph.D. James Buice Michael Adno Jacqueline Richard Chapman Baptiste Bie DanTom Decibel RossPat Boucek, Ford Ph.D. Monte Dr. ZackBurke Jud Anthony Frankie Cianciotto Marion William Halstead Scott Morrison Steve Lombardo Marjorie Shropshire CamWile Luck Ariel Sahar Mejri, Ph.D. Alex Lovett-Woodsum Kris Millgate T. Edward Nickens Contributors Chris Robinson Aaron Adams, Ashleigh SeanPh.D. Rolle Christine Beck Jon Shenker, Ph.D. Paul Wills, Ph.D. Brooke Black Wilson Ph.D. Jacob W.JoEllen Brownscombe, Ashley JamesYarbrough Buice Tom Karrow Photography Alex Lovett-Woodsum Cover: Robbie Roemer Jonathan Olch Aaron Rehage, Adams, Ph.D. Jennifer Ph.D. JakeRoberts Basnett Nick Jamie Darrow Rolando Santos, Ph.D. Dashiell JonMarty Shenker, Ph.D. Don DeMaria Liz Wallace, Ph.D. Pat Ford JoEllen Wilson Ed Glorioso Adrian Gray Bonefish & Henshilwood Tarpon Journal Tom 135 San LorenzoIGFA Ave. • Suite 860 Justin Lewis Coral Gables, FL 33146 Sahar Mejri, Ph.D. Scott MorrisonEvents 2017 Fundraising Andrew O’Neil Naples, FL – January 11, 2017 Courtney Saari Boca Grande, FL – February 3, 2017 Jon Shenker, Ph.D. New York,Nick NY –Shirghio March 14, 2017 Islamorada, FL Der – March 30, 2017 D. Van Merwe 6th InternationalCarlton Symposium, Ward Weston, FL – November 10-11, 2017 Ian Wilson Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures

BTT’s Mission

Bonefish & Tarpon Journal

To conserve and restore bonefish, tarpon and permit fisheries habitats through research, 2937and SW 27th Avenue stewardship, education and advocacy.

Suite 203

Miami, FL 33133

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

Journal

Board of Directors BONEFISH & TARPON

A publication of

Officers

Carl Navarre, Chairman of the Board, Islamorada, Florida Bill Horn, Vice Chairman of the Board, Marathon, Florida Jim McDuffie, President & CEO, Miami, Florida STEWARDSHIP THROUGH SCIENCE • SPRING 2017 Harold Brewer, Immediate Past Chairman, Key Largo, Florida Tom Davidson, Founding Chairman Emeritus, Key Largo, Florida Features: Russ Fisher, Founding Vice Chairman Emeritus, Updates/Reports: Key Largo, Florida Setting the Hook ........................................... 4 The Florida Keys Initiative .............................................12 Bill Legg, Treasurer, Key Largo, Florida Changing of the Guard.................................6 Fix Our Water ..................................................................14 Jeff Harkavy, Secretary, Coral Springs, Florida

Tarpon Genetics: Connectivity Across the Atlantic ....18 Perspectives..................................................8 10 Bonefish & RestorationMike Program ......... 26 Tippets .........................................................

Fitzgerald JohnConservation Abplanalp David Nichols Florida KeysMaine Guides.................22 Next Stamford, Level Permit Tracking...........................................

28 Q & A with York Wexford, Pennsylvania Connecticut Harbor, Contest Results Excerpt Passion for Permit ...............................

30 Keep ‘em Wet Allen Gant Jr. Dr. from AaronAAdams Steve O’Brien Jr. ..................38 Raven, Carolina 2017 Featured Artist: John Swan.............. 41 Of Bonefish andFlorida Contaminants: WhatGlen is the Risk?North ..... 32 Melbourne, Boston, Massachusetts Belize River Lodge .......42 Cuba:Rich Writing the Next Chapter ...................................

Gus Hillenbrand 36 Trip of a Lifetime: Andrews Al Perkinson Batesville, Indiana Ghost Stories ...............................................48 Juvenile Tarpon Habitat Mapping & Restoration .......

52 Denver, Colorado Charleston, South Carolina

IRL Tarpon and Snook Nurseries..................................

54 Rick Hirsch Stu Apte Chris Peterson Tavernier, Florida

Board of Directors Rodney Barreto Coral Gables, Florida

New York, New York

Titusville, Florida

Dave Horn Key West, Florida

Jay Robertson Islamorada, Florida

Officers (*Executive Committee)

Johns,Florida* Dan Berger Harold Brewer, Chairman of the Board, John Key Largo, Birmingham, Alabama Virginia of the Board, Marathon, BillAlexandria, Horn, Vice Chairman Florida* JimBob McDuffie, President, Coral Gables, Florida* Doug Kilpatrick Branham Tom Davidson,Florida Chairman Emeritus, KeySummerland, Largo, Florida*FL Plantation, Russ Fisher, Vice Chairman Emeritus, Key Largo, Florida* Jerry Klauer Mona BrewerPresident Emeritus, Hingham, Matt Connolly, Massachusetts* NewFlorida* York, New York BillKey Stroh, Managing Largo, FloridaDirector, Florida Keys, Luis Menocal, Managing Director Cuba,Bill Palmetto Klyn Bay, Florida* Christopher Buckley Jr. Bill Klyn, Co-Chair of Membership, Jackson, Wyoming* Jackson, Wyoming Islamorada, Florida Jeff Harkavy, Strategic Relationships, Secretary, Coral Springs, Florida* Bill Legg Aaron Adams,A.Director Adolphus Busch IVof Science and Conservation, Melbourne, Florida* Key Largo, Florida Ofallon, Missouri Allen Gant Jr. David Nichols* Wayne MelandYork Harbor, Maine Glen Raven, North Carolina

Stu Apte Tavernier, Florida Sarah Cart

Key Largo, Rodney BarretoFlorida Coral Gables, Florida John Davidson Dan Berger Georgia Atlanta, Alexandria, Virginia

Greg Fay

Bert Scherb Chicago, Illinois Casey Sheahan Bozeman, Montana Nelson Sims Key Largo, Florida Adelaide Skoglund Key Largo, Florida Steve Stanley St. Petersburg, Rob Sharpe Florida West, Florida Bill Key Stroh

Miami, Florida Nelson Sims* Rob Hewett* Naples, FloridaSteve O’Brien Jr. Key Largo, Florida Aurora, OntarioSandy Moret Boston, MassachusettsJohn Turner

Adelaide Skoglund Gus HillenbrandIslamorada, Florida John O’Hearn Winston-Salem, North Carolina Key Largo, Florida Batesville, Indiana Big Pine Key, Florida

John Newman

Paul Vahldiek

Steve Stanley Bob Branham David Perkins Houston, Texas Bozeman, Montana Rick Hirsch Covington, Louisiana St. Petersburg, Florida New York, New York Plantation, Florida Manchester, Vermont Mona Brewer Key Largo, Florida

Dave Horn

Chris Peterson

Titusville, Florida Advisory CouncilKey West, FloridaHonorary Trustees

John Turner Winston Salem, North Carolina

Paul Vahldiek Bill Legg* Christopher Buckley Jr. Texas Robertson Andy Mill, Aspen, Colorado Randolph Bias, Austin, Marty Arostegui,Jay Coral Gables, Florida Houston, Texas KeyFlorida Largo, Florida Islamorada, FloridaIslamorada, Islamorada, Florida John Moritz, Boulder, Colorado Charles Causey, Bret Boston, Alpharetta, Georgia Johnny Morris, Springfield, Missouri DonCurlett Causey, Miami, Florida Florida Ken Wright Sandy Moret Betsy Bullard, Tavernier, Jack Bert Scherb Jack Nicklaus, Columbus, Ohio Scott Deal,Florida Ft. Pierce, Florida Yvon Chouinard,Chicago, Ventura, Illinois California Winter Park, Florida Islamorada, Florida Key Largo, Flip Pallot, Titusville, Florida Paul Dixon, East Hampton, NY Marshall Field, Hobe Sound, Florida John Newman Mike Fitzgerald Mark Sosin, Boca Raton, Florida Chris Dorsey, Littleton, Colorado Guy Harvey, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Covington, Louisiana Wexford, Pennsylvania Paul Tudor Jones, Greenwich, Connecticut Chico Fernandez, Miami, Florida Steve Huff, Chokoloskee, Florida Bill Tyne, London, United Kingdom Pat Ford, Miami, Florida James Jameson, Del Mar, California Joan Wulff, Lew Beach, New York Christopher Jordan, McLean, Virginia Michael Keaton, Los Angeles, CA / MT Advisory Council MattCockeysville, Connolly, Hingham, Andrew Clancy, Montana Kramer, Dania Beach, Randolph Bias,McLain, Austin, Texas MarylandMassachusetts JackRob Payne, Gainesville, Florida Florida “Lefty” Kreh, Payne, Florida Huey Lewis,Memphis, Stevensville, Montana Huey Lewis, Stevensville, Montana Curtis Jack Bostick, MarcoGainesville, Island, Florida Steve Reynolds, Tennessee Adolphus A. Busch IV, Ofallon, Missouri Davis Love III, Hilton Head, South Carolina Shepherd, Largo,Head, FloridaSouth Carolina Steve Reynolds, Memphis, Tennessee JoelDavis Love Key III, Hilton Charles Causey, Islamorada, Florida Joel Shepherd, Key Largo, Florida George Matthews, West Palm Beach, George Florida Matthews, West Palm Beach, Florida Don Causey, Miami,Winter FloridaPark, Florida Honorary Trustees Ken Wright, Tom McGuane, Livingston, Montana Tom McGuane, Livingston, Montana Scott Deal, Ft. Pierce, Florida Marty Arostegui, Coral Gables, Florida Andy Mill, Aspen, Colorado Chris Dorsey, Littleton, Colorado Bret Boston, Alpharetta, Georgia John Moritz, Boulder, Colorado Greg Fay, Bozeman, Montana Betsy Bullard, Tavernier, Florida Johnny Morris, Springfield, Missouri Chico Fernandez, Miami, Florida Yvon Chouinard, Ventura, California Jack Nicklaus, Columbus, Ohio BTTSound, 7th International Science Symposium and Flats Expo 8thMiami, Annual Florida Keys Dinner and Pat Ford, Florida Marshall Field, Hobe Florida Flip Pallot, Titusville, Florida NovemberFlorida 12-13, 2021 Circle of Honor Inductions Mick Kolassa, Oxford, Mississippi Guy Harvey, Fort Lauderdale, Nathaniel Reed, Hobe Sound, Florida Andrew McLain, Clancy, Montana Steve Huff, Chokoloskee, Florida Resort Mark Bonaventure & SpaSosin, Boca Raton, Florida January 16, 2021 David Islander Meehan, St.Resort, Petersburg, Florida Mar, California Paul Tudor Jones, Greenwich, Connecticut Weston, FL Islamorada, FL James Jameson, Del Wayne Meland, Naples, Florida Michael Keaton, Los Angeles, CA / MT Bill Tyne, London, United Kingdom Michael Nussman, Davidsonville, Maryland Rob Kramer, Dania Beach, Florida Joan Wulff, Lew Beach, New York

Upcoming Events

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Features

14 Florida Keys Bonefish Are Back!

46 Lords of the Fly

22 Raymond Floyd

52 Uncharted Waters

After a decades-long decline, the Florida Keys’ bonefish population is rebounding. T. Edward Nickens The PGA Hall of Fame golfer has traded his driver for a fly rod. Monte Burke

24 Tracking The Silver King

BTT’s Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project reveals new insights into the movements and habitat use of the Silver King. Tom Bie

36 Bonefish Spawning Research

BTT scientists and collaborators are unlocking the mystery of bonefish spawning. Dr. Aaron Adams 2

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IGFA Hall of Fame members Tom Evans and Steve Huff pursue the world-record tarpon in Homosassa. Monte Burke The global shutdown benefited the flats fishery, but impacted the guides who depend on it. Michael Adno

58 The First Line of Defense

BTT and partners undertake an unprecedented project to restore mangroves in the northern Bahamas destroyed by Hurricane Dorian. Ashleigh Sean Rolle

62 Honoring Conservation Leaders

BTT honors five remarkable individuals who made their mark on the flats fishery. Kris Millgate W W W. B T T. O R G

Updates/Reports: Setting the Hook............................................. 4 Perspectives: Western Dry Rocks.................... 6 Welcome Aboard............................................. 8 Tippets...........................................................10 Habitat in Management.................................18 9th Annual NYC Awards Ceremony............... 34 Restoring Tarpon Nursery Habitats............... 42 Conservation Captain Q & A.......................... 56 2021 Artist of the Year: Jim Rataczak............ 66

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Setting the Hook From the Chairman and the President

Carl Navarre, Chairman

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onte Burke’s excellent new book, Lords of the Fly, excerpted

in these pages, reminds us of the cause-and-effect

relationship that exists between people and nature. It’s the story of tiny Homosassa, big tarpon, and the obsessed guides and anglers who pursued them for world records. But the careful reader can also discern another story line—the decline, some may say collapse, of a local fishery. This is deeply relevant to the work of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and the complex challenges we are called to address.

It was a fishing gold rush. News of newly discovered “beasts” and the angling exploits that ensued ignited interest in Homosassa, a small community on Florida’s Gulf coast. Eventually the local waters were filled with legions of anglers seeking to topple world records set by the likes of Evans, Pate and Apte. But increased fishing pressure was only part of the story. New residential developments also appeared on the coastal landscape, setting their foundations deep in wooded areas that once provided buffer for rivers and springs while at the same time spiking demands on water supply. As fate would have it, this was unfolding during a time when severe droughts also made water scarce. The cumulative effect hit the fishery hard, drastically reducing the flow of fresh water reaching the bay. What did trickle in was more polluted than in the past and insufficient to forestall cascading environmental impacts and changes in tarpon behavior.

Sound familiar?

Some aspects of the Homosassa experience parallel the decline of bonefish in the Florida Keys, from the presence of increasingly polluted waters and altered flows from the Everglades to seasonal droughts, hypersalinity and the large-scale loss of seagrass. In fact, the back half of this boom-to-bust chapter in Homosassa’s history progressed on a timeline very similar to that marking the decline of Keys bonefish. Interestingly, Tom Evans’ logbook reveals that he did not land a single fish in 1996 after 30 days on the water, which was only months before BTT was established. His luck did not improve much over the years that followed.

If we could write an epilogue to Lords of the Fly, it would be to tell the rest of the story—the story of conservation. Among the pantheon of anglers appearing in the book are individuals who went on to play a significant role in BTT’s establishment and subsequent conservation efforts—Stu Apte, Lefty Kreh, Bill Curtis, Chico Fernandez, Flip Pallot.

These legends, many of them enshrined or scheduled to be inducted into our Circle of Honor, lent their names and used their stages to 4

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Jim McDuffie, President

inform, encourage—even inspire—conservation and stewardship of the flats fishery.

In the pages that follow, you will read about the progress BTT has made since those early years as well as some of our priorities for flats conservation in the year ahead. Award-winning author and journalist T. Edward Nickens reflects on the bonefish revival in the Keys, where anglers are enjoying some of their best days on the water in decades. As Sandy Moret says in the piece, “It’s more than a comeback. It’s crazy. It’s a landslide of bonefish sometimes.” Tom Bie, editor of The Drake, shares interesting new insights from our Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Program, which is rewriting the book on what is known about tarpon movement and habitat uses. Data from the study helped make the case earlier this year when the State of North Carolina revised existing regulations to protect migrating tarpon in state waters. The amendment, approved in February, makes the species catch and release only and will end the practice of hanging tarpon high on North Carolina piers in the summer. Going forward, the knowledge gained from this tagging program will help inform other improvements to tarpon fishery management in specific locations and at regional scales.

You will also find updates on important new efforts, including BTT’s campaign to protect spawning permit at Western Dry Rocks through a spawning season closure at the site. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is expected to take action on this recommendation before the end of the year, and your vocal support is needed.

And we remain focused on the importance of conserving habitats. In an ongoing, collaborative project with FWC, BTT is working to ensure that habitat needs are incorporated into future fisheries management plans in the state. The spotlight is on habitat in the Bahamas as well, where work will begin soon on a new, large-scale project to restore mangroves destroyed last year by Hurricane Dorian. Meanwhile, across the Caribbean Basin, BTT remains vocal in its opposition to unregulated coastal developments impacting the flats fishery in Belize.

These are but a few of the ambitious science and conservation initiatives on our 2020-21 agenda. We are pleased with the progress reflected in this issue and our positioning for the challenges that lie ahead. With your continued support and advocacy, we will be successful.

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Perspectives

Protecting Spawning Permit at Western Dry Rocks Captain Will Benson and BTT Florida Keys Initiative Manager Dr. Ross Boucek with an acoustically-tagged permit. Like most permit on the flats of the Lower Keys, this big fish likely spawns at Western Dry Rocks. Photo: Ian Wilson

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critical permit conservation decision looms: whether or not to

protect spawning permit that congregate in a 1.3 square mile

area, 12 miles southwest of Key West, called Western Dry Rocks (WDR). Research has identified WDR as a critical spawning site for permit as well as mutton snapper and several other Lower Keys fish species.

Permit are protected during the spawning season from April through July, when only catch and release fishing is allowed. This catch and release regulation also applies to WDR. However, recent research has revealed that an average of two out of every five permit that are hooked are eaten by sharks prior to being landed, making catch and release an ineffective management strategy at the site. In the absence of other viable management options, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust is calling for a spawning season no-fishing closure at WDR. BTT, in partnership with the Lower Keys Guides Association, has worked hard over the past year to secure protection for spawning permit at this critically important area. In February 2020, BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie met with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to discuss the importance of the permit fishery to the Florida 6

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Keys and the urgent need to conserve it. The following week, a delegation of flats fishing guides and offshore captains joined BTT Florida Keys Initiative Manager Dr. Ross Boucek in Tallahassee, where they made comments to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) in support of protecting spawning fish. This was followed in March with the launch of the “Let Them Get Lucky” social media campaign to educate anglers and other stakeholders about the threats to spawning permit at WDR and to encourage their outreach to FWC. The campaign was very successful and resulted in comments in support of a WDR spawning season closure by hundreds of concerned anglers.

As a result of vocal public support and BTT’s advocacy, WDR is on the verge of becoming the only haven where Keys flats permit can spawn in peace. FWC will hold public meetings in South Florida this fall to gauge public support for a spawning season no-fishing closure at WDR. These meetings will be the last chance for conservation-minded anglers to register strong support for protecting spawning permit.

BTT members are encouraged to participate and speak up for permit conservation.

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Celebrating 50 years!

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With your needs and interests in mind, we revisit these locations frequently to ensure that your travel experience is exceptional every step of the way.

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Welcome Aboard Carl Navarre Named Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Chairman of the Board Carl Navarre was elected Chairman of the BTT Board of Directors on April 23, 2020, succeeding Harold Brewer. A resident of Islamorada, Navarre has been involved in conservation and non-profit leadership for many years, serving previously on the board of The Wildlife Conservation Society, The National Audubon Society, The Atlantic Salmon Federation, The Peregrine Fund and the Guides Trust Foundation, chairing the latter two. Navarre is the former Publisher and CEO of Atlantic Monthly Press. He founded and served as CEO of MyPublisher.com, a software and services platform for digital photography that was sold to Shutterfly, and previously worked for a decade as a magazine writer for Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, and other national publications.

“I would like to thank Tom Davidson and Harold Brewer for their inspired leadership for the last 20 years,” said Navarre. “And I look forward to working with Jim McDuffie and his talented team as we tackle management challenges for bonefish, tarpon and permit across the Caribbean.”

Navarre has fly-fished the Florida Keys and the Bahamas for nearly 50 years, guiding professionally in the Keys from 1975 to 1978. His time on the water has been rewarded with two world records on fly: a 36.5-pound permit on 12-pound tippet and a 15.3-pound bonefish on 20-pound tippet.

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Welcomes John Davidson to the BTT Board of Directors BTT welcomed John Davidson, a longtime member and volunteer, to the Board of Directors on April 23, 2020.

New BTT Chairman of the Board, Carl Navarre. Photo courtesy of Carl Navarre

“This is an exciting time in our mission, with many opportunities to conserve the flats fishery,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “We will benefit greatly from Carl’s leadership and experience as we write BTT’s next chapter.”

A graduate in Business Administration from Michigan State University, Davidson founded the South Florida Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization and served for many years on its international board of directors. He is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization, the Urban Land Institute, where he is a member of the Office Development Council, and currently serves on the board of the Friends of Pennekamp.

Davidson is President and CEO of Parmenter Realty Partners, a commercial real estate firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, with offices in Miami, Dallas and Richmond, VA. “I look forward to my new involvement with the BTT Board and continuing the family commitment and legacy with this great organization,” said Davidson.

An avid outdoorsman, Davidson belongs to the Burge Plantation shooting club in Georgia and has been a passionate fly angler most of his life, enjoying backcountry fishing for tarpon, bonefish and snook, as well as freshwater endeavors for trout and bass. Davidson has been active in building a circle of BTT friends in Atlanta, including serving as co-host of several successful events locally.

New BTT board member John Davidson. Photo courtesy of John Davidson

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Tippets

Short Takes on Important Topics

Photo: Pat Ford

7TH INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM AND FLATS EXPO POSTPONED Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s 7th International Science Symposium and Flats Expo has been postponed until November 12-13, 2021. The two-day event at the Bonaventure Resort & Spa will bring together stakeholders from across the world of flats fishing—anglers, guides, industry leaders, government agencies, scientists, outdoor writers, authors and artists. The 2021 program will include presentations on major research findings by BTT along with spin and fly casting clinics, fly tying clinics, panel discussions with top anglers and guides, art and photography, and a special banquet honoring legendary anglers Sandy Moret and Chico Fernandez and BTT Research Fellow Dr. Andy Danylchuk for their contributions to flats fishery conservation. The Symposium will also feature an expanded Flats Fishing Expo, where sponsors will have a bright spotlight to share information about their products and corporate commitment to conservation. We look forward to seeing you there. Stay tuned to BTT social media for updates on this special event.

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NC MAKES TARPON CATCH & RELEASE The North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission passed an amendment on February 20, 2020, that prohibits possession of tarpon and makes it illegal to gaff, spear, or puncture tarpon by any method other than hook and line. BTT supported the amendment throughout the process and applauds the NC Marine Fisheries Commission for taking this important step to improve the state’s management of the tarpon fishery, which will strengthen regional tarpon conservation. “Protecting this magnificent fish while it spends time in our North Carolina waters is a great move by the NC Division of Marine Fisheries Commission Board,” said Capt. Jot Owens, North Carolina fishing guide and BTT Conservation Captain.

“Thank you to everyone who supported this amendment and a special thanks to the Commission board members who voted in favor of this ruling.”

CAYO ROSARIO PLAN ILL-CONCEIVED Bonefish & Tarpon Trust supports the flats fishing community and Belizean citizens in their opposition to a proposed development at Cayo Rosario, and to the current construction-related activities taking place there. “The development plan for Cayo Rosario is ill-conceived, not appropriate for these habitats, and will damage Belize’s economically and culturally important flats fishery, which has an annual economic impact of more than $100 million Belize dollars,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie.

Cayo Rosario is privately owned, and lies within the Hol Chan Marine Reserve (HCMR). This area is part of HCMR to protect important flats fishing areas for the economic and cultural benefit of the surrounding communities. Thus, development may be permitted on the caye, but the surrounding waters and submerged bottom are protected. Of chief concern is the construction of overwater

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bungalows (OWB) that extend onto the flats that surround the island. The proposed OWBs will negatively impact the flats habitat and the fishery as a whole. To learn more and take action visit: www.defendcayorosario.com.

BTT FLATS ECOLOGY LESSON PLANS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE Our first round of education lesson plans for grades 2 through 12 are now available as part of the BTT Flats Ecology Curriculum.

These lesson plans meet Florida education standards and have been certified by CPALMS, the State of Florida’s official source for standards information and course descriptions. The new curriculum uses bonefish, tarpon, permit, and snook to teach about coastal habitats, food webs, fish life cycles, and more. The lessons are dynamic and engaging, and encourage students to explore the coastal and marine environments to apply their new knowledge.

The lesson plans can be accessed directly at: www.btt.org/education-outreach.

BTT CLOSING IN ON LIKELY SPAWNING SITE For a bonefish fishery to be productive, bonefish must be allowed to spawn undisturbed. Finding where bonefish spawn, and protecting those fish and the habitats that support them, is a core component of BTT’s conservation approach. With the help of guides and partners, BTT has identified multiple pre-spawning aggregation (PSA) sites in the Bahamas and along the Belize-Mexico border. Yet the locations of bonefish PSAs in the Florida Keys remain a mystery, one that must be solved if we are to ensure the future health of the Keys’ bonefish fishery and help it reclaim its former glory.

To identify these sites, BTT is tagging bonefish with acoustic transmitters and tracking their movements and migrations by downloading data from receivers (listening stations) anchored to the bottom that detect those tagged fish when they swim by. When BTT scientists Dr. Ross Boucek and Ph.D. student Nick Castillo analyzed data from late last year, they made an exciting discovery.

On the full moon in December 2019, a 24-inch female bonefish that was tagged near Big Pine Key was detected by a receiver over 30 miles away, near a location that BTT scientists think might be a PSA site. This discovery is a significant step in the right direction.

“Detecting this fish on its migration doesn’t tell us exactly where she spawned or where the PSA is, but gets us closer,” explained Dr. Boucek.

Stay tuned to BTT social media for more updates on BTT’s bonefish spawning research.

WIN THE FLY-FISHING TRIP OF A LIFETIME The winner of BTT’s annual members-only drawing and his/her guest will enjoy four nights at Red Bays Sunset Lodge on Andros’ famed northwest coast and three days of guided flats fishing with the lodge’s team of experienced guides. Located a few miles north of the historic sponge settlement of Red Bays, the lodge was built in 2018 by Benry Smith, son of legendary guide Charlie Smith, also known as Crazy Charlie. The six-person operation specializes not only in trophy bonefish anytime of year, but also tarpon and occasional large permit during the warmer months. If you prefer to wade for bones, the expansive, hard white sand flats of the Joulter’s Cays is only a short 15-minute boat ride from the lodge.

All dues-paying BTT members who join or renew during 2020 will be automatically entered to win, with the drawing taking place on January 7, 2021.

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~ $29.95 US

About the Author

Bonefish B.S. II Expanded and Updated Edition

by BTT Founding Chairman Tom Davidson, Sr., with new contributions from Chico Fernandez and Aaron Adams, Ph.D.

Tom Davidson, Sr. grew up in the Midwest and made his adult home in Toronto, Ontario, Canada – a long way from the nearest bonefish. Although a life long avid fisherman and hunter, he hadn’t had occasion to try shallow saltwater fishing until the 1970s.

Well, it was an instant love affair and one that shaped Tom’s movements and choices in years to come.

Having enjoyed reasonable business success as an entrepreneur and industrialist in Canada, United States and Europe, Tom was able to semi-retire early, spending increasing amounts of time at his winter home in Key Largo at Ocean Reef Club starting in the late 1970s. By the late 1980s he was spending most of the winter in the Florida Keys – and most of that time on a bonefish skiff.

Inspired by a love for bonefishing and a passion for protecting the flats fishery, Bonefish B.S. II features bonefish science, short stories by angling legends, casting tips, a comprehensive list of lodges and more...

Tom Dav idson, Sr. FEATURED CO-AUT HORS

s, PhD Chico Fernandez and Aaron Adam CONTRIBUTING STORY AUTHOR

S

, Stu Apte, Don Bowers, Bill Curtis Venini Sandy Moret, Billy Pate, and Steve ent choices, casting hints, Contents: Histor y of the sport, equipm ehensive list of angling lodges, bonefish lifecycle and behav ior, compr the sports angling legends. very entertaining short stories by

ALL PROCEEDS from the sale of Bonefish B.S. II go to Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.

Tom’s passion for fishing was distracted in 1992 by Hurricane Andrew’s damage to the Ocean Reef area and by his involvement as Chairman of the residents buy-out of the Ocean Reef Club and as initial chairman of the new Club.

flap ed on back Continu Get your copy at: https://btt.shop-ivars.com

Accepting Quality Consignments for

THE WINTER SALE FEBRUARY 2021

Ewoud de Groot (Dutch, b. 1969) Curlew | SOLD FOR $19,200

A. Elmer Crowell (1862-1952) Calling Tern | SOLD FOR $60,000

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Chet Reneson (b. 1934) Casting At Shadows | SOLD FOR $9,000

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Florida Keys Bonefish Are Back!

BY T. EDWARD NICKENS

T

he reports have dribbled in over the last five years.

During the past few seasons, around Key Largo and Biscayne Bay, BTT’s Vice Chairman Emeritus Russ Fisher started hooking double digits of bonefish in a single day—a feat he hadn’t enjoyed in decades. In the middle Keys, guide Doug Kilpatrick began encountering more small bonefish about 2015. Over the last few years, he says, large schools of 2- to 4-pound bones have mudded both the ocean and bay sides of the Keys. Although he typically guides more for tarpon than for bonefish, his anglers are consistently catching 4-pound bones, and a client landed a true 8-pounder in early June.

Ditto the Lower Keys, where tournament anglers have put up numbers practically unseen since the 1970s. From top to bottom,

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and all the way out to the Marquesas, the venerated archipelago of mangrove clad islands 20 miles west of Duval Street, bonefish are on the upswing, in a region famous for the flats ghosts—and nearly as famous for what was their stunning decline.

These aren’t the huge fish of yesteryear, marked by 10-pound or more bones. At least, not yet. But over the last five years, guides and anglers throughout the Florida Keys have reported more bonefish, in more places, than most observers had seen in decades.

Now the whispered hopes have become a cautious chorus: Bonefish in the Florida Keys are back. Guides and avid anglers are positively breathless about the revival. And the timing is propitious, to say the least. While the COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the travel and guiding business, the return of bonefish has emerged as

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A Florida Keys bonefish. Photo: Ian Wilson

a stunning piece of stellar news for both guides and anglers. Long considered the birthplace of flats fly-fishing, courtesy of the gray ghost, the Keys seem to be turning the page on a long dark fishing chapter. And the future for the fish looks brighter than it has for a long time.

“It’s more than a comeback,” said Sandy Moret, a BTT board member, owner of Florida Keys Outfitters, and founder of the 31-year-old Florida Keys Fly Fishing School. “It’s crazy. It’s like a landslide of bonefish sometimes. We’re not finding the 12-pounders with their fins out of the water and slithering all about. But there are lots of 4- and 5-pound-fish when a couple of years ago they were mostly 2 and 3 pounds. And they’re only going to get bigger.” ***

Scientists who study bonefish agree that it’s a new day in the Keys. “No one is jumping the gun with this enthusiasm,” said Dr. Aaron Adams, Director of Science and Conservation for BTT. “The bonefish are coming back, and it’s fantastic to see a lot more fish and know that those fish could all get a lot bigger.” Adams was a part of a 2017 study that posited three separate periods of bonefish fishing success in Florida Bay since 1990, when guides began reporting whether bonefish were targeted on a fishing charter. From 1990 to 1998, guides reported catching bonefish on 60 percent of their trips. Between 1999 and 2009, that figure had fallen to 48 percent. Between 2011 and 2014, success bottomed out at only 37 percent. To see angler success rise again is exciting.

Still, there’s a cautious note to the optimism: Why did the Keys’ bonefish populations fall off so dramatically? And what are the mechanisms supporting a rebound?

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Capt. Doug Kilpatrick and BTT Florida Keys Initiative Manager Dr. Ross Boucek fishing for bonefish near Key West. Photo: Ian Wilson

Research by BTT scientists suggests that numerous factors commingled to kick off the bonefish tailspin. Water quality issues, of course, have long plagued South Florida. It’s possible that ocean currents shifted somewhat, disrupting routes of bonefish larvae drift throughout their range. A major freeze in the Keys in 2010 definitely impacted bonefish. “I had dead bonefish belly-up in the canal by my house,” recalled Kilpatrick, who lives on Summerland Key. Other ills could be reflected in the discovery of prescription medicines in bonefish. A BTT-supported study at Florida International University in 2016 found that 14 different pharmaceuticals were present in bonefish, including antihypertensive agents, psychoactive compounds, antihistamines, and muscle relaxants.

than ever to conserve the spawning and nursery sites that support bonefish populations. But that effort has proven particularly confounding for scientists. Bonefish are famously known as flats dwellers, but when it comes time to spawn, thousands of bonefish will migrate and gather in pre-spawning areas, then head to deepwater spawning sites at dusk. One study in the Bahamas revealed spawning aggregations at an astonishing depth of 450 feet.

“There’s been a lot of time and effort spent trying to figure out what caused the decline,” reported Adams. “As with most ecological issues, there’s rarely a single driver. We have a number of possibilities, not a single smoking gun.”

Efforts to uncover the pre-spawning areas and spawning sites across the range of bonefish have been exhaustive. In one study, 2,600 “virtual larvae” were released into a massive database model based on known oceanic circulation patterns, then tracked for 53 days to reveal the connectivity between bonefish larvae from widely varying sites. A four-year study of bonefish genetics that wrapped up in 2018 supports the findings of the larval transport study, and shows a significant portion of Florida Keys bonefish are spawned in Belize, Cuba, and Mexico.

Since juvenile bonefish largely disappeared from the Keys for a number of years, why are they back? The fact that the Keys switched largely from septic systems to sewer treatment in the late 2010s had to help, many say. Net restrictions in some Caribbean countries, especially Belize, Cuba and Mexico, are likely a factor. And many guides report a sea change in attitudes and actions regarding fish handling. “The culture is much better in terms of fish handling,” said Kilpatrick. “Most people in this sport have caught a bonefish, so they don’t need another photo. You rarely see anyone pull a fish out of the water. I try not to touch the fish at all.”

In another study, Justin Lewis, BTT’s Bahamas Initiative Manager, and his collaborators captured more than 7,000 bonefish using seine nets and marked each fish with a dart tag. Fishing guides and anglers through Abaco, Grand Bahama, and Andros reported recaptures to present a picture of strong site fidelity: 60 percent of the bonefish were caught within five kilometers of where they were tagged. At the same time, however, the study underscored knowledge about how far bonefish travel to spawn. Recaptures at pre-spawning areas included migrations from home range to the spawning site as far as 75 kilometers.

With the natives making a Florida Keys comeback, it’s more critical

This high-tech sleuthing has helped identify at least five pre-

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spawning sites on the islands of Abaco, Grand Bahama, and Andros.

Other specific sites have been uncovered in Belize, Mexico, and Cuba. It’s a massive step forward in bonefish conservation—based on these studies alone, five new national parks have been established in the Bahamas. But in the Florida Keys, one giant missing link in the bonefish puzzle is, simply, where do the fish spawn?

That remains a mystery. It could be that numbers have been so low that finding spawning fish was doubly difficult. But as part of an ongoing study to find where Keys bonefish spawn, BTT has placed 100 acoustic receivers throughout the Keys to track bonefish movements and pin down the important pre-spawning grounds where the fish aggregate before migrating offshore to spawn. Minimizing disturbances from boat traffic or poor water quality inflows are critical to protect these areas.

It’s one of the last pieces of the conservation puzzle for bonefish.

“And we’re getting closer,” Adams reported. During the full moon of December 2019, a 24-inch female bonefish outfitted with an acoustic tag the previous September on Big Pine Key was detected by a receiver more than 30 miles away. That fish, dubbed “5905” for her acoustic tag number, was almost definitely headed for one of the Keys’ mysterious spawning areas.

“We’re taking what we learned in the Bahamas about preferred habitat characteristics for spawning, and we’re getting closer to discovery of specific locations in the Lower Keys,” said Adams. “These are pretty specific areas—a bay that might be a quarter-mile wide.

But once we find them, the work will begin to protect them.” *** The bonefish comeback couldn’t come at a more needed moment.

The COVID-19 pandemic nearly shuttered the Florida Keys guiding industry, and few regions in the United States can point to how a single recreational fishery influences both culture and economy so deeply. Pre-COVID, the flats fishery in south Florida was worth $465 million a year. That’s a lot of boat gas and tippet material. But

it’s also a lot of groceries, daycare, and school supplies for guides, outfitters, hotel clerks, and bartenders and their families. Any good news will help relaunch a business that is as important for guides and their families as it is beloved by anglers.

These fish might be smaller than in days gone by. But they are back where they ought to be. For older guides, it’s a glimpse of déjà vu. And for younger guides and anglers who’ve wondered if there could be a way to rewind the clock, the Keys’ bonefish comeback is particularly exciting.

Count Augie Moss among them. The 38-year-old guide grew up visiting Key Largo with his parents, attended the University of Miami before law school, and moved to Islamorada in 2012 after four years as a Chicago lawyer. For his first few years he guided offshore fishing trips, but soon fell under the same flats fishing spell that lured the first wave of bonefish anglers to the Florida flats after World War II. Except the bonefish weren’t there. Moss had a mentor in Duane Baker, a renowned Upper Keys guide known for his bonefish chops.

They fished weekly throughout 2013, 2014, and 2015. “As far as bonefish goes,” recalled Moss, “it was brutal, and if anybody was going to find them, he was the guy. I don’t know how many days we’d go without seeing a single bonefish.”

Thankfully, there are plenty of other Keys fish to hunt, and Moss is now a full-time flats guide, splitting time between his home waters in Islamorada and Biscayne Bay. But over the last couple of years, he says, he’s caught glimpses of the famed bonefish fishery of the past. “I’ve had those days when it was epic,” he said. “Now I can understand what all the old-timers talk about. I’d love to see that happen again, and I’m hopeful that what’s going on today is a precursor to going back to what it used to be.”

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.

BTT Initiative Manager Dr. Ross Boucek releases an acoustically-tagged Florida Keys bonefish. Photo: Ian Wilson B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L FA L L 2 0 2 0

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Focusing on Habitats: Now More Essential than Ever AARON J. ADAMS, PH.D.

DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE AND CONSERVATION BONEFISH & TARPON TRUST

ROSS BOUCEK, PH.D.

FLORIDA KEYS INITIATIVE MANAGER BONEFISH & TARPON TRUST

Snook and mangroves. Photo: Pat Ford

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ealthy Habitat = Healthy Fisheries.

This has long been a BTT mantra, and anglers worth their salt know this. Healthy seagrass beds = tailing bonefish. Good water quality on the edges of banks = long strings of tarpon. A mix of healthy habitats with plenty of places for crabs to hide = great permit fishing.

Especially important are the nursery habitats required by juveniles.

These are the factories that produce the fish of the future. Backcountry mangrove creeks and wetlands, for example, are critically important nurseries for juvenile tarpon and snook. Unfortunately, we’ve already lost a lot of these habitats, and threats of loss and degradation continue. But we can fight back to restore and protect the habitats important to our fisheries.

Although we know that habitat (which includes water quality) is at the core of healthy fisheries, the system that is used for fisheries management doesn’t include habitat. At all. BTT has made it a top priority to change this. We need a new approach to fisheries management with habitat as a central focus.

To accomplish this, we are working with our colleagues at Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the University of Florida (UF) to find a new approach to fisheries management that includes habitat, and complements the current strategy that is focused

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Juvenile tarpon and snook habitat. Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

on traditional stock assessments. FWC does a good job with stock assessments, but the stock assessment approach was created long ago, when the importance of habitat to fish abundance wasn’t yet recognized. And when habitat loss was not nearly as threatening as it is now. The top threat to species like bonefish, tarpon, permit, and snook, for example, isn’t overharvest, it’s habitat loss and degradation, which a stock assessment can’t address.

As is often the case, our colleagues in the terrestrial (land) world of management and conservation are a bit ahead of us. They’ve had a habitat focus for years. They often know, for example, how much habitat is needed to support a healthy population of elk, and focus on habitat as a core component of their management strategy. It’s a bit harder to do this in the ocean because it’s so much harder to visually assess the number of fish, the health of habitats, and how many fish are using those habitats. But we’re pushing forward using an approach that has worked in the terrestrial world.

Our species of focus in our collaboration with FWC is snook. This is for two reasons. First, juvenile snook and tarpon use similar habitats as nurseries: backwater mangrove creeks and wetlands. So if we protect juvenile snook habitats, we protect juvenile tarpon habitats. Second, FWC has a lot of data on snook. It may be the fishery in Florida with the most data available. FWC not only collects data from anglers to estimate catch, harvest, and the number of snook that die after release,

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A juvenile tarpon. Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

Algal blooms severely impact vital tarpon and snook habitat. Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams Top: Mangroves are essential components of flats habitats. Photo: Nick Shirghio

they also collect a lot of data on their own in the Fisheries Independent Monitoring (FIM) program. With these data, and the popularity of the fishery, it may be the most tightly managed; the snook fishery is closed to harvest for nearly half of the year, and the slot size is very narrow.

Because of this and changes in angler ethics, the fishery is more than 98 percent catch-and-release.

We’re working with FWC to determine whether we can use the data from the FIM program, in combination with habitat data, to make predictions about snook population size and the ability of the snook population to recover from negative events like the 2010 freeze that killed an estimated 60 percent of the snook population in some areas.

The prediction is that regions, like the Northern Indian River Lagoon, which have lost more habitat, will have fewer snook and take longer to recover from the 2010 cold kill than regions like Charlotte Harbor, which has suffered less habitat loss and degradation.

The results so far support our predictions. More and better-quality habitat means a healthier snook population that can recover faster from negative events. The data analyses are complex, and we still have some work to do before we can reach our final conclusions, but we’re making great progress.

The next steps will be using this connection between habitat and snook population health to guide habitat protection and restoration. The initial

goal will be to protect and restore enough habitat to rebuild the snook population in the most vulnerable areas. The second goal will be to protect and restore habitat to increase snook abundance and improve the fishery. Once we are able to apply this to snook (and thus tarpon), then other fish and fisheries can be tackled.

BTT’s President and CEO, Jim McDuffie, is excited about the collaboration. “Fish scientists have realized the urgent need to incorporate habitat into marine fisheries management for at least 20 years, but so far have not been able to figure out how to do it,” said McDuffie. “Previously, scientists tried to insert fish-habitat data into standard stock assessments. That’s very much a square-peg-in-a-roundhole problem. So we’re thrilled that our partners at FWC and UF are working so closely with BTT scientists to find a new approach to this critically important challenge.”

Jim Estes, Deputy Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries Management of FWC, who has been instrumental in moving this collaboration forward, said, “Using good science, I believe that this partnership with BTT and UF will revolutionize how we think about and manage marine fisheries in the future.”

The challenge is a big one, but for the future of our fisheries it’s imperative that we succeed. We’re pleased with the progress so far, and hope to have much more success to report in the coming months.

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Raymond Floyd Trades the Fairway for the Flats

BY MONTE BURKE

Raymond Floyd on the water. Photo: BTT

D

uring his playing career, the golfer, Raymond Floyd, was

known for “the stare,” a wide-eyed look of pure intensity

that signified that he was in the zone, completely absorbed in the moment before him. His imagination took over conscious thought.

He felt weightless. The stare usually appeared during the last round of a tournament, when he was in, or near, the lead. “I’ve seen him win without it,” his late wife, Maria, used to tell people. “But I’ve never seen him lose with it.”

“People used to ask me how I got into that state with the stare,” said Floyd. “I always told them that if I’d known how to induce it, I would have won a lot more tournaments.”

As it turned out, Floyd won plenty anyway. That stare helped him win four major tournaments, which included two PGA Championships, one U.S. Open and one Masters—the tournament he used to dream about

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winning when he lined up putts as a kid in North Carolina. Floyd, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, racked up 65 professional wins in a career that began in 1961. He is one of only two golfers to win PGA Tour events in four different decades (Sam Snead is the other).

Floyd, now 78, retired from professional golf in 2010. Since that time, he has become completely absorbed in another passion, one that he first got into in the mid-1980s: haunting the flats of the Florida Keys and the Bahamas with a fly rod, in search of bonefish, permit and tarpon. And that famous stare? He still gets it according to Mark Krowka, who has been guiding Floyd on the flats for four decades.

“Yeah, he does it on the boat sometimes,” said Krowka. “I love it when I see it because I know something special is about to happen.”

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***

Floyd fell in love with fishing as a young boy. He was born at Fort Bragg and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His grandfather introduced him to the sport, taking him to various lakes, ponds and rivers to fish for perch, bream and bass. His mother was also an ardent angler and fished with him on many occasions. (His father, a pro at Fort Bragg’s enlisted men’s golf course, took care of the golfing part of Floyd’s childhood.)

While he played on the PGA Tour, Floyd frequently took along a few fishing rods and would make casts into various Tour golf course ponds with his two sons or other golfers after a round. The ponds on the Par Three course at Augusta National—filled with plucky largemouths—were among his favorites. Indeed, Floyd is just one of many professional golfers who have been obsessed with fishing, a list that includes Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, David Love III, Darren Clarke and Nick Faldo, among others. Floyd believes that fishing appeals to pro golfers in a way that might seem like a bit of a contradiction. “It requires as much focus as golf does. But by focusing that hard on it, you can forget the pressure of the game of golf. Whenever I go out on the water, I don’t have a thought about anything other than fishing.”

Floyd got his introduction to flats fishing after he married Maria in 1973, and moved to Miami Beach. He first fished with the legendary guide, Bill Curtis, in Biscayne Bay, throwing live shrimp with a spinning rod. Floyd’s fellow pro golfer and fishing nut, Andy Bean, introduced him to Krowka a few years later, and the two have been fishing together ever since. Among the best memories from those early years was when his younger son, on his tenth birthday, accompanied Floyd and Krowka on the boat and caught a nearly ten-pound bonefish.

Floyd’s introduction to fly-fishing came via a bit of serendipity. In the early 1980s, he began to get lessons from a golf pro named Jack Grout, who had mentored Nicklaus from a young age. At first, those lessons took place at a course in Miami Beach. But Grout was later hired by Cheeca Lodge to provide lessons for its guests in the spring, and Floyd followed him down to Islamorada. While there, he met the then-owner of Cheeca, Carl Navarre Sr., who invited him to go fishing.

One day as they came back to the dock, Navarre told Floyd that he should give fly-fishing a shot, and gave him a fly rod and reel. “I never fished with a spinner again,” said Floyd, who now also ties his own flies.

He soon caught his first bonefish on a fly in Biscayne Bay. A little while later, he went fishing with his brother-in-law and Krowka near the Ragged Keys, an area of Biscayne Bay notorious for its subsurface snags. Floyd hooked a big permit, and it quickly got hung up. “Mark told my brother-in-law to take the boat and he jumped in the water and unwrapped the line,” said Floyd. They landed the fish.

Tarpon became a later obsession. Floyd caught his first off of Long Key. He and Krowka like to target the difficult tarpon that swim the ocean side of the Keys. “I love how hard they are to catch,” he said.

Another favorite tarpon tactic of the duo: targeting the fish that roll on the bay side in the slick water of the early mornings.

For the last five years or so, Floyd has spent up to 90 days a year on the flats. He has a yacht (named Short Game) and on it, he carries a Maverick Mirage flats boat. He spends part of the year in

“We’ve seen other species, like the Atlantic salmon, decline. We can’t let that happen with bonefish, permit and tarpon.” the Bahamas, fishing the Berry Islands and Abaco (“I love the Marls section of Abaco,” he said), and part of the year anchored off of Islamorada where he fishes primarily with Krowka, but also with local guides, Tim Klein and Craig Brewer.

BTT Chairman Carl Navarre Jr., a frequent fishing partner of Floyd’s, describes him as “a very, very good angler and intense on the water and competitive, but never in an unfriendly way.” Some of the inherent abilities that came in handy during Floyd’s golfing career have transferred seamlessly to his flats fishing. It starts with his ability to spot fish. “Ray has incredible eyesight,” said Krowka.

Indeed, later in Floyd’s career on the PGA Tour, shortly after winning the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills at age 43, he began to worry that his eyesight was failing. He went to an ophthalmologist, who laughed after examining him. Floyd’s eyesight had declined…to 20/15.

“Welcome to middle age,” the ophthalmologist told him.

That extraordinary eyesight pairs well with his natural athleticism. As a young golf prodigy, Floyd would sometimes use left-handed clubs (he’s a righty) when he played against older boys in order to keep the match competitive. He is known as an uncannily accurate caster. As with a golf shot, Floyd says, a flats angler has to judge the distance and the wind before he or she casts, and has to make that one shot count and be as perfect as possible.

One other aspect of flats fishing that has always appealed to Floyd: the guide-client relationship, which he likens to the caddie-player relationship in golf. “It’s two people working together on one singular goal,” he said.

The more Floyd has fished, the more he’s become interested and active in conservation measures. “We’ve seen other species, like the Atlantic salmon, decline,” he said. “We can’t let that happen with bonefish, permit and tarpon.” He says he became particularly interested in the research side of conservation of the flats species when he and Navarre Jr. visited with Bonefish & Tarpon Trust scientists aboard their research vessel, the M/Y Albula, in Abaco in the fall of 2019. “We saw what they were doing and it just struck me how important that research really is,” he said.

Like golf, Floyd says, flats fishing can never truly be mastered. “The more I do it, the better I get at it. But I still lose tarpon all the time.”

That, though, is a large part of the fun. “It’s just all so intriguing,” he said. “I really love it.”

Monte Burke is the New York Times bestselling author of Saban, 4th And Goal and Sowbelly. His new 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.

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Tracking The Silver King

What we’ve learned from acoustic telemetry

BY TOM BIE

I

n the spring of 1956, a small team of scientists led by Seattle based fisheries biologist Parker Trefethan captured 40 adult salmon from the Columbia River and attached a “special sonic device” to the back of each one. The goal: “To obtain detailed information on individual fish behavior,” especially regarding salmon navigating up Columbia River dams. The device, developed

by Honeywell, sat inside an aluminum capsule about the size of a shotgun shell and had a maximum battery life of 100 hours. This was the first time acoustic telemetry had been used to track fish, but

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while the transmitter could be detected from nearly 700 yards, the maximum distance that a salmon could actually be tracked was only 800 feet.

Sixty years later, in May of 2016, a 45-pound tarpon was caught in the Lower Keys on Captain Lenny Leonard’s boat. The fish was promptly sponsored by Orvis, surgically implanted with an acoustic transmitter about the size of an AA battery, and given the name Helios. It was the second fish tagged by Dr. Luke Griffin in BTT’s then-adolescent

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Tarpon’s ability to gulp air for extra oxygen allows them limitless use of backwater habitats. Photo: Nick Shirghio

Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project, but it became the first fish in the program to be detected by an underwater tracking station. A month after its release, the signal from Helios’ transmitter was picked up by a receiver near Port Orange, Florida, more than 400 miles from where it was tagged. “Helios was really the first fish we collected robust telemetry data from,” said Griffin. “It’s pretty remarkable that we’re able to track them over multiple seasons—we’re going on year four with this fish.”

The detection of Helios and other youngsters that made similar journeys—like one 55-pounder that was in the Lower Keys in June and in Maryland by July—is significant for several reasons. At only 45 and 55 pounds, these are still either sub-adult or young adult tarpon, yet their lengthy trips in a relatively short time contradict a long-held belief by many guides and anglers that young tarpon don’t move much—that they stick around one area all year and aren’t very migratory. “We already debunked that,” said University of Massachusetts Amherst fisheries professor Dr. Andy Danylchuk, who

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heads the BTT program. “The benefit with acoustic transmitters is that we can put them in relatively smaller tarpon. And tracking individuals over multiple years allows us to see if they are doing the same thing each year, or if they do something different when they get older.”

This project manages around 100 of its own underwater receivers spread throughout the Keys, but also uses receivers in collaborative tracking networks along both coasts of Florida, and up the Eastern Seaboard. “Technological advances in acoustic telemetry have really paved the way for this project,” said Danylchuk. “And such collaborative receiver networks increase our capacity to study the movement patterns of highly migratory species, like tarpon.”

A brief history of fish tags: In the late 1800s, ribbons were allegedly tied around the tails of salmon to track their return. Since then, there have essentially been five major developments in tag technology relevant to the coastal and marine environment. Standard plastic stamped with an ID number that an angler can call in or enter online, spaghetti tags are affordable, show where a fish has been tagged and recaptured, but reveal virtually nothing else about its movements, leaving much to extrapolation. Archival tags are similar to spaghetti tags in that they are attached externally, but they record

data like water temps, depth, and location along the way. Problem is, the fish still needs to be recaptured in order access that data. PIT tags (Passive Integrated Transponder) started being used in the mid’80s, and work like an internal barcode or Social Security number on a fish (similar to a chip you can put in your pet dog or cat). They use a tiny battery-less transponder that sends a signal containing its ID code to an underwater antenna, or a hand-held device if the fish is recaptured, so information like movement patterns and growth rates can be calculated. Because they don’t require batteries, a PIT tag can be placed inside very small fish that don’t need to be recaptured, and can last the lifetime of the fish. But the fish must swim very close to the antenna in order to be detected, and if more than one fish passes an antenna at the same time, neither tag will be detected.

PSAT tags (Pop-up Satellite Archival Tags) were designed for highly migratory species like billfish, tuna, and tarpon. They record depth, temperature, time of day, and light levels. Fish tagged with PSATS don’t need to be recaptured because the tags eventually pop off the fish, float to the surface, and transmit the archived data via satellite.

(Even more data is captured if the tags are recovered.) Problems: Satellite tags are expensive, and too big to be used on tarpon under 100 pounds. They also don’t stay on tarpon very well. Researchers

Tarpon gather in large pre-spawning aggregations at certain passes and inlets prior to moving offshore to spawn. Photo: Don DeMaria

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A wide range of new data has been gathered from the nearly 200 tarpon tagged thus far, and the results are paying dividends to guides, anglers, and all who’ve invested in the project.

Photo courtesy of Jot Owens

Captain Jot Owens Advocates for NC Tarpon Amendment Chasing a new policy through any governmental process can be a lot like fishing.

You need the right fly at the right time—and presented with unfailing attraction.

Even then, some days are better than others!

It should come as no surprise that a seasoned fishing guide was working the water earlier this year when the State of North Carolina amended its regulations to prohibit the harvest of tarpon and make it illegal to gaff, spear or otherwise puncture tarpon by any means other than hook and line.

Capt. Jot Owens, a 25-year veteran in the fishing industry and one of BTT’s dedicated Conservation Captains, played a pivotal role in advocating for this muchneeded improvement in state regulations.

“Many of these magnificent fish spend their summers traveling through or summering here in NC waters,” Owens said. “It is our duty as NC anglers to help protect the species while it is inhabiting our local waters. The vast majority of tarpon that we see here are sexually mature fish and very large in size. These are the breeder fish and they must be protected.”

Owens was quick to acknowledge the strong support of the amendment from concerned fishing guides, anglers, outdoor enthusiasts, as well as many of the members of the NC Marine Fisheries Commission who voted in favor of the new law. In particular, he thanked former Commissioners Cameron Boltes and Chuck Laughridge for their leadership in an earlier vote to start the rules-making process.

“I knew when Jot reached out to BTT two years ago, he had spotted an opportunity for us to work together to amend the outdated tarpon regulation in North Carolina,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “We shared the same vision—one that would end the practice of hanging migrating tarpon to dry on NC piers or losing them elsewhere in state waters. Jot’s commitment and perseverance were inspiring.”

BTT supported the effort by providing data from its ongoing Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project, appeared before the NC Marine Fisheries Commission to give public comment in favor of the amendment, and called on local members and friends to submit letters in support of the measure.

In the months since the amendment was passed, there has been push-back from a small but vocal group against it, led by the ocean pier fishing community. The only avenue for recourse still open to these proponents is through legislative review and action by the NC General Assembly. But support for the amendment is both broad and strong—and Captain Jot Owens is on the job!

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The BTT tagging team gets ready to release a tarpon after inserting the acoustic tag. Photo: Ed Glorioso

might spend more than $4,000 on a tag, and then only track a tarpon for a few weeks or months before it falls out. Acoustic transmitter tags represent the latest advancements in technology and cost roughly a tenth as much as satellite tags. Some acoustic transmitters are also equipped with temperature, depth, and activity sensors, meaning that many more insights about fish are still to come by using this technology.

Helios is far from the only fish providing intriguing new data. BTT’s program has received tens of thousands of detections from nearly 100 tagged tarpon, and some patterns indicate a species that can fairly be described as—if not free-spirited, then at least independent.

Many individual tarpon will repeat a similar travel route from year to year, but the diversity of those movements across a population indicates some highly individualistic fish.

In spring 2021, the Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project will celebrate its five-year anniversary, which also happens to be the battery life of the modern transmitters the project is using. A wide range of new data on our favorite migratory target has already been gathered from the nearly 200 tarpon that have been tagged thus far, and the results are paying dividends to guides, anglers, and all who’ve invested in the project. “It’s such important work,” said Simon Perkins, who in May took over as the new president of Orvis. “But it’s difficult work. It’s one thing to track migrations and spawning behavior in a river, but the open ocean is so challenging. BTT is exceptionally strong at using really good, objective science in their work. It’s why so many people trust them.”

“I just think each tarpon has its own personality, like people or dogs do,” said Capt. Newman Weaver, who guides out of Georgetown, South Carolina, and has been collaborating with BTT for several years. “If it’s spring, and you’re sitting on the ocean side in the Lower Keys, you may see 90 percent of the tarpon headed from Long Key to Bahia Honda. But there’s still ten percent of them going the exact opposite direction, for no apparent reason.”

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One trend Weaver has seen in South Carolina, and that BTT’s telemetry data has confirmed, is that a number of tarpon are staying much farther north later into the year than previously thought. In fact, Weaver believes some of them don’t leave at all. “I think there’s

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Tarpon have been around for more than 100 million years. Photo: Pat Ford

a whole group of fish here that just never goes to Florida,” he said.

“And it makes sense from a biological standpoint, because those fish are like, ‘Why would I waste thousands of calories swimming to Florida and back if I can just stay right here?’”

Therein lies perhaps the most fascinating aspect of what scientists have learned after four years of acoustic tagging: Tarpon travel when they feel like traveling. They go where they want, when they want.

And if they like what they find when they get where they’re going, they might just decide to stay. “Ten years ago, it was believed that every tarpon only spawned in the Keys, and only came so far up the Atlantic Coast,” said Weaver. “But if they find more food up here, why leave?”

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“Another option we’re considering,” added BTT’s Director of Science and Conservation Dr. Aaron Adams, “is that tarpon seasonal movements are changing as a result of climate change, so they may be moving north earlier in the year, returning south later in the year, and perhaps even moving farther north on a more regular basis.”

These newly discovered trends, in what is still a vastly understudied fishery, illustrate one of the most meaningful advances ever made in telemetry. The system Trefethan used in 1956 allowed for “active” tracking, which required following the fish in real time with a boat and an above-water receiver. These early tracking missions produced meaningful results for their time, but the length of each study often depended on how much gas and caffeine were aboard the tracking vessel. Active tracking remained biologists’ primary

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A tarpon receives a few stitches after a tag has been surgically implanted. Photo: Andrew O’Neil

method of data gathering for more than 30 years, until “passive” acoustic telemetry became available in the late 1980s with the development of stand-alone, battery-powered underwater receivers.

Receivers today are capable of detecting and decoding thousands of unique transmissions, even when multiple transmitters (tagged tarpon, tagged shark, tagged turtle) are all traveling within the

same detection zone. These improvements, combined with parallel advances in transmitters—some so small they can be injected with a syringe—and also with lithium-ion battery life (thanks, Tesla), have resulted in an endless array of data-gathering enhancements.

And yet, while all this newly collected data is impressive, it’s what

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scientists do with that information that matters most. “Because people are putting transmitters in more and more animals, the way we analyze the data is becoming much more sophisticated,” said Danylchuk. “It’s the type of techniques that companies use for things like social networks and cell-phone towers, and it’s getting to the point where we are using machine learning [artificial intelligence that allows a system to learn from data, mainly by deciphering patterns].

We’re talking about hundreds of thousands or even millions of detections, so a simple laptop can’t analyze this stuff.”

For BTT and other conservation groups, data is used not only to learn more about a species, but to push for the best, most meaningful, most bang-for-your-buck conservation measures to protect that species.

“Some of the information we are now getting may be able to help us determine if tarpon movements are affected by red tides, or when Okeechobee dumps water into the ocean, or by changes in bait patterns,” said Danylchuk. “My sense is, because of climate change and ocean warming, we’re going to start seeing tarpon migrating farther up the Atlantic Coast more regularly. If you talk to people in the Carolinas, that fishery is growing.”

An estimated 125-pound tarpon was hooked on a fly and leadered in North Carolina in August 2015 by angler Bill Rustin and guide John Huff. Rumors of other NC fly-caught tarpon had circulated for five years, until July 1, 2020, when angler Ben Klein and guide Seth Vernon landed and documented the first North Carolina tarpon caught on a fly. “We have to be much more vigilant about getting these states, from Texas to New Jersey, around the table to talk about tarpon regulations,” added Danylchuk, “because in some of these states it’s still legal to harvest them.”

Acoustic tagging data also provides for the filling in of previous gaps in science-based arguments for legislative reform, especially when those arguing for protection can clearly show the economic impact of how changes lead to job creation in coastal communities. “The science behind the fisheries is great, but we need to show the dollars involved,” said Scott Deal, President and CEO of Maverick Boat Group, the company sponsoring and funding the five-year project.

“Anything we can do to support more research showing how valuable that fish is, how valuable that habitat is, and the overall impact to the economy, will show why we can’t let them bulldoze the mangroves, we can’t let them pollute the water, we can’t let people kill the fish.

Because that economic argument, and the jobs associated with it, is what I’ve found to be the most successful in moving the needle for policymakers.”

Protecting the environment and the economic well-being of states are both aided by the use of tagging to track fish. Among other data, the acoustic tagging project is showing that a larger number of tarpon are present in the waters off more coasts than previously thought, and for many, they connect the coasts through their movements. With these tarpon fisheries expanding, and with some former commercial fisheries crashing, many coastal communities are searching for alternative livelihoods for their residents. “You have more folks that may be looking at recreational angling as a way to earn a living,” said Danylchuk, “and we need to make sure tarpon are protected to support that.”

Tom Bie is the editor and publisher of The Drake. He splits his time between Denver and the Oregon Coast.

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When you travel, anything can happen. When it does, Global Rescue gets you home. info.globalrescue.com/btt

The most trusted travel services provider for anglers and adventurers worldwide.

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BTT in NYC

PHOTOS: MARCOS FURER / DORSEY PICTURES

9TH ANNUAL NEW YORK CITY AWARDS CEREMONY

Michael Keaton and Tom Brokaw during filming of Buccaneers & Bones.

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TT awarded the Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in

Conservation to Tom Brokaw in a special virtual presentation

of the 9th Annual New York City Awards Ceremony on September 17, 2020.

An Emmy award-winning journalist and best-selling author, Brokaw served as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News for 22 years, during which time he reported on the most historic events of the time.

Blending his passion for angling and conservation, Brokaw narrated the acclaimed fly-fishing series Buccaneers & Bones and co-starred alongside Lefty Kreh, Michael Keaton, Liam Neeson, Huey Lewis, Jimmy Kimmel, Tom McGuane, Yvon Chouinard, Jim Belushi and some of the world’s top flats anglers.

“We are honored to present Tom Brokaw with the Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “Throughout his celebrated career, Tom has been a tireless advocate for conservation. His role on Buccaneers & Bones was no exception as he helped to raise awareness of the threats facing the flats fishery as well as our science-based approaches to address them. We thank Tom for all he has done to help advance our conservation mission.”

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Steve Burke, Chairman of NBCUniversal, introduced his longtime friend and colleague. “Tom really was the heart and soul of NBC News for many, many years, and is to this day,” Burke said. “Tom means a lot to me. He means a lot to NBC news. He certainly means a lot to anybody who’s ever picked up a fly rod and cast. He’s a great angler. He’s a great lover of this country and the American West. And it is my privilege to introduce our honoree, Tom Brokaw.”

In accepting the award, Brokaw called on anglers to be engaged in fisheries conservation.

“What we need to do as individuals, and collectively, is to organize ourselves around something in which we can have an impact,” he said. “And nothing is more important than the impact we can have on the fisheries—freshwater and saltwater, especially. It’s a great honor.

I’m not entirely deserving, but I’m thrilled to be associated with Lefty Kreh.”

As part of the star-studded evening, BTT also honored the cast of Buccaneers & Bones with the Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award, which is presented to individuals who advance the cause of conservation through media and outreach to others. The 2020 recipients were actor Michael Keaton, singer-songwriter Huey Lewis, author Tom McGuane, Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard, and BTT board member Bill Klyn, a co-creator of the show.

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The recurring cast of the acclaimed television series, Buccaneers & Bones, received the Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award at the 9th Annual NYC Awards Ceremony. The 2020 honorees were Yvon Chouinard, Michael Keaton, Bill Klyn, Huey Lewis and Tom McGuane.

Michael Keaton

Huey Lewis

Yvon Chouinard

Tom McGuane

Bill Klyn

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Bonefish Spawning Research Posts New Discoveries

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’ll always remember the first bonefish I caught with a fly I tied myself. The bonefish was cruising slowly along a sandy beach, the water so shallow the top inch of the fish’s back was exposed above the surface. As I watched the bonefish move slowly along the shoreline toward where I stood, hiding in the shadow of a mangrove at the end of the beach, it would occasionally make a quick lunge after one of the small crabs that were feeding along the water’s edge on the late dropping tide. I was so interested in the fish’s behavior that I almost forgot I was there to catch a bonefish (that’s the scientist side of my brain).

lunged toward the fly with such energy that it beached itself, fly in its mouth. The fish made a few wiggles to get itself back in the water, as I crouched, mesmerized. I set the hook.

But the fishing side of my brain pushed its way forward, and I crouched and moved up the beach to give myself some backcast room away from the mangroves. I was casting what a friend calls “crap on a hook,” a poorly tied, Clouser-like, crabby imitation made mostly of brown deer hair.

We always think of bonefish as shallow water fish.

As the fish moved within range, I plopped the fly on the water’s edge a foot in front of the fish. As the fish came even with the fly, in slightly deeper water, I made a small strip. When the fish saw the movement it 36

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I’ve always been drawn to the skinniest of water in my pursuits of bonefish, water so shallow it’s as if they are crawling over the bottom.

But even on days fishing for bonefish in deeper water, we’re still only talking about water that’s a few feet deep. And Andy Smith’s pursuit of the monster bonefish on the east side of Andros are still in water that’s only six feet deep.

In recent years, as we’ve learned more about bonefish biology, the scientist side of my brain has more than once told the fishing side of my brain to sit down and shut up. There is so much more to bonefish than being the gray ghosts of the shallows.

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This drone photo shows the bonefish pre-spawning aggregation during the day before they moved offshore to spawn. Photo: Tom Henshilwood

The history of the recreational flats fishery in the Florida Keys is long and storied, and is credited by many with starting the modern sport of flats fishing. Despite the interest in the recreational fishery, just 15 years ago little scientific information was available. The lack of information increased the fisheries management challenge when it became apparent by the 1980s and 1990s that the Florida Keys bonefish population was in decline. This population decline contributed to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classification of bonefish as Near Threatened due to regional habitat loss and fragmentation (particularly mangroves and seagrasses), coastal development and urbanization, declines in water quality, and harvest by commercial, artisanal and recreational fisheries.

The observed decline in bonefish abundance prompted the founding of Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited in 1998, the first conservation group focused on advocating for improved management of the species and the fishery it supports (Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited changed its name to Bonefish & Tarpon Trust in 2009). Upon the organization’s founding,

it quickly became clear that little scientific information on bonefish was available. Therefore, the goals of BTT have been to assess the status of knowledge of bonefish, assess the threats to the fishery, support research to address these issues, and push for revision of fishery management strategy to promote the recovery of the Florida Keys bonefish population.

Building upon the knowledge gained during BTT’s first years of existence, the Bonefish Reproduction Research Project (BRRP) began in 2016, with the goals of learning the entire life cycle of bonefish, and understanding the biology well enough that we could complete that entire life cycle in captivity, all in a five-year period. Five years is very ambitious, especially when you realize that it took Japanese scientists studying Japanese eels, which are related to bonefish, nearly 50 years to achieve this level of understanding of the eel life cycle. Fortunately, we benefited from the advice of our Japanese colleagues. Plus, as a colleague recently said, “I’ve never known BTT to fear the unknown.”

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

The eggs at left are from a female captured from a pre-spawning aggregation, not quite ready to spawn. The eggs at right are from a female in a pre-spawning aggregation that are much larger and ready to spawn. Photo: Dr. Jon Shenker

BONEFISH PHYSIOLOGY

The first step was to figure out what controlled the bonefish reproduction process, and what “spawning ready” bonefish looked like. In previous research, scientists had found that female bonefish had eggs for much of the year, but couldn’t determine exactly when they spawned—they never found eggs that were fully mature and ready to be spawned. Now we know why.

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We have focused much of our research in the Bahamas, because with such a large bonefish population we were able to get more samples faster than if we had worked in other locations. We captured female bonefish from flats and from pre-spawning sites on Grand Bahama, Abaco, and Andros, and collected blood and egg samples.

We analyzed the blood for hormones because the concentrations of hormones provide clues on the reproductive state the females are

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in—ready to spawn, already spawned, on the flats and not in spawning mode. We analyzed the eggs for lipids (fats) that indicate the health of the eggs (in general, more fats = better, closer to spawning), and size (larger eggs are closer to being ready for spawning).

In general terms, we found that female bonefish were in multiple phases: resting (few or no eggs, not even thinking about spawning); thinking about it (allocating energy resources to making eggs); getting ready (eggs have developed a lot, are larger and with high lipid levels); migration time (ready to migrate to the pre-spawning site); and spawning imminent.

We also found that the hormone levels, which indicate the level of spawning readiness, differed significantly between the flats, where the hormone levels were lower, and the pre-spawning site, where the hormone levels were at the highest levels. We also found that egg size would slowly increase in female bonefish on the flats as the spawning moon neared, but that there was a rapid and dramatic increase in egg size just prior to spawning. This shows that bonefish can remain in the eggs-ready suspended phase on the flats for an extended period, and don’t really turn on the jets for reproduction until late in the game.

This is relatively unusual in marine fish, which typically show a more gradual and prolonged final egg preparation phase.

BONEFISH SPAWNING

In past issues of the Journal, we’ve shared with you the exciting findings from our bonefish tagging research. That research revealed that bonefish have small home ranges on the flats for most of the year, and that they migrate long distances from the flats to pre-spawning sites that are away from their normal flats, generally near deep water, where they form pre-spawning aggregations (PSAs). And we knew that bonefish in the PSAs move offshore at night to spawn, but that’s where our knowledge ended.

We were working off the M/Y Albula, donated for our research by the Fisheries Research Foundation, when we found the answer last November. We tracked the bonefish as they moved offshore at dusk.

After meandering around offshore for a couple of hours, they were in water thousands of feet deep. Then they suddenly started to descend. And descend. And they kept going. The bonefish aggregation descended to 450 feet depth! And they remained deeper than 300 feet for hours!

This is the same species we chase in water so shallow their backs are exposed, and remain in small, shallow home ranges for almost all of their lives!

Fishing side of the brain: “Say what?!”

Science side of the brain: “See, I told you these fish were different—go take a nap!”

After being offshore since dusk, and deeper than 300 feet for hours,

This image from the tracking boat sonar shows the bonefish aggregation during their spawning dive at approximately 120 meters (396 feet) deep.

Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

as the first pre-dawn glow warmed the horizon the bonefish suddenly rushed upward to 222 feet, where they finally spawned.

Why, you are probably asking yourself, would bonefish go to such lengths to spawn? We still have some work to do to figure out the “why,” but we have a good idea.

The tags we had in the bonefish that we used to track the aggregation had sensors in them that told us the real-time conditions the bonefish were in. The pressure sensor is how we know the depth, plus the sonar images we were able to record. The tags also had a temperature sensor, and this showed a significant change in water temperature at around 200 feet depth. The surface water temperature was 83 degrees Fahrenheit; the temperature below 200 feet was 78 degrees. This dramatic change in temperature caused a change in the density of the water (colder, saltier water is more dense than warmer, less salty water). We think that bonefish were searching out this change in density (called a pycnocline) to spawn. This would leave their eggs, and then the larvae that hatched, just above the pycnocline, and the eggs and larvae would essentially float on this denser layer of water. Our research has shown that bonefish eggs have a type of lipid that allows the eggs to float in this dense water.

Preliminary information suggests that bonefish larvae eat a substance called marine snow. Marine snow is a shower of biological debris falling from the upper portions of the water column toward the ocean floor. The “snowflakes” are actually collections of tiny pieces of dead organisms, like plankton, fish slime, bacteria, and other organic matter.

When observed underwater, it looks like snowflakes slowly falling.

The marine snow also often collects at pycnoclines—if it doesn’t stop

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sinking entirely, it slows down. So if the bonefish larvae are already in this zone, they are closer to their main food source.

Assuming they get enough to eat and don’t get eaten, the bonefish larvae live in the ocean for 41 – 71 days before finding their way inshore and transforming into juvenile bonefish. As we revealed in a previous Journal article, the ocean currents may transport the larvae far away to other locations, or spin the larvae back to their parents’ home region.

HATCHING BONEFISH

The eggs hatched in about 24 hours.

The newly hatched larvae had no eyes or mouth, only a yolk and oil droplet that they used for energy to continue growing for the next few days. The yoke and oil droplet contained the lipids (fats) from the eggs that we studied previously.

As they grew, the larvae formed eyes, a mouth, impressive teeth, and a gut.

We’ve figured out the adult portion of the bonefish life cycle—home ranges, reproductive physiology, spawning migrations, PSAs, and now offshore spawning. Colleagues long ago figured out what bonefish larvae looked like because they had captured and described the larvae as they came inshore and transformed into juveniles. And research completed in 2014 gave us a good idea about juvenile habitats. So the remaining gap is from spawning to the late larval stages. What does a fertilized egg look like? How long does it take to hatch? What do newly hatched larvae look like, how fast do they grow, and what do they actually eat?

After five days, they began feeding on the food we had prepared to imitate marine snow.

We’ve answered a lot of those questions in the past few years.

We captured bonefish from a PSA and put them in large tanks on the M/Y Albula. We were able to strip-spawn some females and males (by applying pressure on their abdomens, we got them to release eggs and milt). We then mixed the eggs and sperm, and placed the fertilized eggs in special circular tanks, called Kreisel tanks, that slowly circulated water to keep the eggs suspended in the water.

Getting fish to spawn in captivity can be very difficult. It’s one thing to get them to eat and grow, but getting the conditions just right for spawning is a different challenge. As we’ve already learned, the reproduction process for wild bonefish is very complex and impossible to fully replicate in captivity. But we’re making progress.

Unfortunately, after eight days they died. They had been eating the food, but the food likely didn’t have sufficient nutrients for these early days. We’ve reformulated the food for the next attempt.

This project is the first time that bonefish have been spawned, eggs have hatched, and larvae have grown to eight days.

BONEFISH SPAWNING IN CAPTIVITY

Since the conditions in large tanks are not the best way to get fish into

This image shows bonefish embryos beginning to form. Photo: Dr. Jon Shenker

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A bonefish larvae hatching from the egg. Photo: Dr. Jon Shenker

the spawning mood, we use a few tricks. First, we artificially change the lighting (the duration of light each day) and water temperature to mimic the seasons—longer days and warmer water for summer, shorter days and cooler water for winter. Then we shorten the time it takes for a season to transpire, so an entire year lasts just a few months.

This tricks the fish’s system into putting energy into producing eggs and sperm in preparation for the fall spawning season, which we can manipulate to occur multiple times in a calendar year.

As the artificial spawning season nears, we check the bonefish to determine if the eggs are developing, and give them hormone injections to help the process. This is a common practice in fish spawning work. We check the fish near the full moon in the month they should think is peak spawning, and if we find a female bonefish with well-developed eggs we give her a different hormone injection and put her in a separate tank with a spawning-ready male.

So far, we’ve gotten fish to this spawning-ready stage numerous times, but don’t yet have a successful spawn in captivity. But each time we learn new information from wild fish, we update our captive breeding approach.

INFORMATION FOR CONSERVATION

The recent increase in young age classes of bonefish in the Florida Keys is a promising sign. This means that new larvae are coming into the system and surviving to become adults, and the fishery is improving. But if we are to prevent another decline in the future in the Florida Keys as well as other locations, we need to understand why.

Based on the new information obtained in the Bonefish Reproduction Research Project and from other recent research, we now have additional tools to help us figure out why, which will help us make the management changes needed to ensure healthy bonefish populations in the future.

The knowledge gained from identifying bonefish PSA locations and their offshore spawning behavior is guiding our search for bonefish spawning areas in the Florida Keys, and has helped us identify spawning sites in other countries. As we identify these sites, we begin the work to get them protected.

A five-day old bonefish larvae. Photo: Dr. Sahar Mejri

Knowing the spawning depth of bonefish will enable us to revise and improve our larval transport models, so we can better define the links between bonefish populations throughout the regions. As we continue to hatch and rear larval bonefish in captivity, we will learn more about their behavior and diet, which is important for understanding how the larvae might use ocean currents to their advantage and how they might be impacted by climate change and ocean acidification.

Now that we know what healthy bonefish eggs look like, and we know that a fish’s diet influences egg quality, we will be able to use egg analysis as an indicator of bonefish health. For example, would a water quality decline that causes a seagrass die-off and kills a lot of organisms that are bonefish prey result in less nutrition for bonefish, and impact females’ ability to create healthy eggs?

All of the new data from fieldwork hold great promise for getting bonefish to spawn in captivity. We know the hormone changes required for females to properly develop eggs ready for spawning. We now know the size bonefish eggs must be to be ready for fertilization. Now that we know that bonefish are seeking out a temperature change for spawning, we will create a rapid drop in temperature as part of the process to induce the final egg development needed for fertilization. And we’ll keep fertilized eggs and then the larvae at these lower temperatures to match natural conditions. This should improve our chances of successfully completing the bonefish life cycle in captivity.

Bonefish provide leverage for conservation because of their high economic value as part of a recreational fishery, and their charismatic nature (they regularly adorn the covers of magazines). To protect the economically important bonefish fishery, management agencies have to protect habitats that span from backcountry mangrove flats that bonefish use as home ranges to offshore waters where they spawn. By protecting these many habitats, many other species that are less charismatic but no less ecologically important are also protected. This means that bonefish conservation helps overall coastal conservation. Given that restoring the Florida Keys bonefish population will in large part depend on restoring the South Florida and Florida Keys ecosystem, bonefish restoration will have regional conservation impacts.

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Restoring Tarpon Nursery Habitats An Early Look At Results

BY JOELLEN K. WILSON, MSC BTT JUVENILE TARPON HABITAT PROGRAM MANAGER

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abitat loss and degradation due to development, altered

water flows and introduced contaminants are decimating our

coastal fisheries. Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has embarked on nursery habitat restoration—using three different techniques—to determine the most effective. Preliminary data indicate all three approaches have merit and can help restore key habitats for juvenile tarpon as well as snook.

Nursery habitats that are essential for early life stages are the most vulnerable since young fish typically have smaller ranges of movement and therefore have a harder time avoiding these impacts.

Although our focus is on juvenile tarpon, we’ve also found that another gamefish, common snook, and numerous other prey species essential to our sport fishery and to the estuary, are using the same nursery habitat as tarpon. Not only can we make these habitats better for tarpon, but for these other species as well.

In 2016, BTT completed 16 months of pre-restoration monitoring at one of our habitat restoration sites, Coral Creek Preserve. Coral Creek was part of a residential development project that was left abandoned with a main canal that connects to six canal offshoots. There is still tidal access and fish passage through a mangrove marsh inlet. Although

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our monitoring consisted of tagging and tracking snook and tarpon, we were essentially measuring how well the habitat was functioning prior to restoration.

Creating a baseline is an essential part of habitat restoration that is often overlooked. If you don’t know how fish were using the habitat before restoration, how would you know if the restoration made things better or worse? Think of every weight loss and fitness infomercial that used to come on late night television before the world switched to streaming services. There’s always a side-by-side photo comparison touting the product’s ability to slim you down or bulk you up. All too often we see habitat restoration projects that are only looking at the “after” picture.

Another essential component of habitat restoration is understanding what design elements made the project successful so that they can be repeated in future projects. From previous studies, we know certain habitat characteristics that seem to be appealing to juvenile tarpon, but we don’t know which ones are most important. With the help of Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program (CHNEP) scientists and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), we settled on three different experimental designs to test at Coral Creek.

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One of the canals at Coral Creek during restoration.

Photo: Southwest Florida Water Management District

These designs include an open creek mouth that provides consistent passage from the estuary into the canal, followed by a deep hole with a slowly inclined shallow creek system. Because juvenile tarpon roll at the surface, they are prime targets for wading birds and the deep hole provides refuge from these birds. Fish can also find more stable temperatures in the bottom of the holes during cold snaps in winter and periods of high water temperatures in summer.

Another design element is a “sill” at the mouth of the creek to act as a physical barrier to predators by restricting access to the canal when water levels drop, followed by the deep hole and shallow creek.

A variation of this design is a “sill” at the mouth of the creek that transitions immediately to a shallow meandering creek system that mimics natural habitat without the inclusion of a deep hole.

Coral Creek Preserve is comprised of six adjacent canals, each one serving as its own mini-nursery habitat. BTT collaborated with other scientists to create three different nursery habitat designs that were used during habitat restoration (each design was duplicated for repetition). Chart: Thrive Creative Labs

By including different design elements, this study will determine how juvenile fish use the various designs. For example, will larger fish be drawn to the treatments that were open and flowing while smaller juveniles prefer the sill mouth design to better escape predators? And how important is the “deep hole” to survival of juvenile fish?

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The author collects fish in a seine net. Photo: Jamie Darrow

Since the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) completed the habitat restoration, BTT, with joint efforts and funding from the local Charlotte Harbor FWC field laboratory, has sampled eight times. During sampling, we use various sized nets (both in length and in mesh size) to capture as many fish as possible and implant Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags into all snook and tarpon.

Each tag has a unique identification number that can be detected with a handheld scanner at subsequent tagging events or via autonomous antenna arrays that are strategically placed throughout the system.

We will continue to sample for 12-18 more months to collect enough data to use as a comparison to gauge the success of the restoration.

Following the restoration, we’ve seen a substantial increase in the number of juvenile snook and tarpon inhabiting the canals. That means that eventually we should have more recruits moving out into the estuary and contributing to the fishery than we had prior to the restoration. So far, it appears that the design of the restored creeks hasn’t influenced where we find juvenile snook and tarpon. We’re capturing small juvenile snook and tarpon in all six canals and large juveniles in all six canals, as well as larger fish predators in all of the canals. Therefore, the sills don’t seem to be deterring the predators, but once we have more data, we can compare the juvenile survival in the canals to determine if there is a mortality difference between canals with sills and ones without. Even though we are seeing all sizes of fish in all of the canals, there seems to be a canal preference for 44

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By using different net and mesh sizes, we are able to collect different sizes of tarpon. This is our smallest tarpon that was successfully tagged and released.

Photo: Courtney Saari

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individual fish; 100 percent of recaptured fish were initially tagged in the same canal. It looks like, once again, tarpon are like people. We all like different home styles and geographic regions, but once we pick one we stick to it. With more sampling we’ll be able to see how fast juveniles are growing and at what size they are leaving the system.

Stay tuned!

Habitat restoration is quickly becoming an absolute necessity to combat habitat loss and degradation. However, many restoration projects are lacking a clear purpose. In order to have an applicable project you must be able to gauge success, design for a specific

habitat type or species to increase productivity, and inform resource management. With the help of guides and anglers, BTT has compiled a database of juvenile tarpon locations that are in need of habitat restoration. Our goal is to work with other state Water Management Districts, private agencies and FWC to focus on restoring fisheries habitat with specific designs and measures for success. We don’t have enough nursery habitat to viably sustain adult tarpon populations, especially since nursery habitats are still on the decline. With effective habitat restoration, there is hope for healthy habitats and healthy fisheries.

Each fish is scanned to check for a previously implanted tag. A previously tagged fish is called a “recapture” and the recapture data is used to calculate growth, estimate survival and abundance, and detect movement patterns. Photo: Jake Basnett B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L FA L L 2 0 2 0

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Collision at Homosassa Adapted and excerpted from Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World-Record Tarpon

BY MONTE BURKE

B

y 1978, all of the players were in place in Homosassa, in

pursuit of their sport’s Holy Grail: the world record for the

most glamorous and coveted fly rod species, the tarpon. The fever dream would last for five seasons or so, a singular moment in time—the best fly anglers in the world together in the same place at the same time with the same goal.

Stu Apte, the Muhammad Ali of the tarpon-fishing world, backed up his boasts with wondrous feats on the water. The patience and uncanny hand-eye coordination possessed by the baseball great, Ted Williams, served him well in the pursuit of his favorite fish. Al Pflueger Jr., the

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gentle giant, was highly adept at every aspect of the sport, save for the playing of large tarpon, which routinely took him eight or more hours to land. Carl Navarre Sr., the gentlemanly co-founder of World Wide Sportsman and owner of Cheeca Lodge, sometimes used his helicopter to spot fish on the Homosassa flats. Jimmy Lopez, athletic and handsome, was haunted by personal demons that would eventually lead to a wholly spectacular flameout. Billy Pate, perhaps the most famous tarpon angler ever, was meticulous and obsessed and never shied away from publicity.

The hardcores were joined on the water by others—like Chico Fernandez, Flip Pallot, Jim Harrison, Russell Chatham, Guy de la Valdène and even

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Photo: Nick Shirghio

Jack Nicklaus and Bobby Orr—who made appearances here and there, enticed by the tales of stupendously giant tarpon that swam the flats of Homosassa.

***

Tom Evans was one of the few regulars at Homosassa who was not from South Florida, and he was the sole Yankee (at the time, he lived in New York City). He was not a famous angler, as Apte, Williams, Pflueger, Lopez, and Pate were. He was also one of the few who had an actual nine-to-five job. He felt he was viewed as a latter-day carpetbagger, a bit like an outcast, even though he was allied with

the Keys-based guide, Steve Huff. And yet, early on, he and Huff—the former collegiate nose tackle paired with the wiry guide—were the team to beat in Homosassa.

They were on the water, idling out of the Homosassa River, every morning at 5:30. Even when other guides and anglers were up earlier, they’d often wait for Huff to leave and follow him out, because he knew how to navigate the tricky river and its mouth. Evans and Huff were nearly always the last boat in, as well, tying up close to eight at night.

“It seemed like we never saw the dock in the light of day,” says Evans.

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Tom Evans (left and upper right). Capt. Steve Huff (lower right). Photos courtesy of IGFA

Every day was an endurance test for both angler and guide. “It was an athletic event. We’d kill ourselves, torture ourselves,” says Evans.

“Steve never wanted to go back in until we were dead. That made him happy.” They were both on their feet for around eleven hours a day. Huff learned the flat slowly and painstakingly, one plunk of the push pole at a time, pushing into the fifteen- to twenty-mile-per-hour winds that always seemed to arise in the afternoon off the Gulf. He would never start the engine if fish were around, even if he and Evans were leaving for the day. Instead, he’d pole out of the area, which sometimes added another forty-five minutes to the trip home. “The tarpon were lying around, doing their thing. This was their house. It was disrespectful to blow them out,” Huff says.

They stayed out on the water even in the worst of thunderstorms— “some horrible shit,” says Huff—dropping a few anchors, hitting the bilge pumps, and lying down in the bottom of the boat like Egyptian mummies as waves crashed over the bow. The lightning and the thunder would “scare the hell out of us,” says Evans. But then it would inevitably pass, and the sun would come out and the water would go slick, and the tarpon would start pouring in. Evans always waited for his graphite rod to stop humming from the leftover electricity in the air before he picked it up and started fishing again.

Evans concentrated only on the biggest fish he saw on the flat, the Rocquettas, as he called them. In a string of tarpon, the largest

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fish were usually found two to three places behind the lead fish, or maybe two or three spots from the back of the line. If the fish were in a daisy chain, he and Huff observed it for a bit and would “look for the fattest face,” says Evans. When that one was identified, Evans cast the fly toward the tail of the fish directly in front of it.

When he hooked a tarpon, Evans immediately fell into a trance of concentration, getting into the flow of the fish, reading its body language. If the fish was leaping or on a blistering run, he did nothing but hold on to the rod. But as soon as the tarpon began to slow down, Evans pounced, trying to “own the head,” as he called it. He never pulled without purpose. Everything was done to keep the fish off balance. “Every fish is different. But they all tell you what to do if you pay attention. If you don’t pay attention, they can easily ruin your day,” says Evans.

That’s because of the second, third, or fourth wind that a big tarpon can get during a fight if an angler relaxes. “If you’re resting, you’re losing,” Evans says. “If you had a fish on for two to three hours, you were wasting the day.” He once had a tarpon landed, exhausted by the side of the boat after a thirty-minute fight, when a fellow Homosassa angler motored up and asked if he could use the tarpon for a film he was making. Evans said sure and handed him his rod with the fish still attached. It was 4:30 in the afternoon. At nine that night, the fellow angler showed up at a local restaurant and ran into

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Evans. The fish had revived and the man had fought it for another three hours and failed to land it.

In the evenings, during the first weeks of their trips, when they were still fresh, Evans and Huff would go for a four-mile jog after fishing, and then out to dinner. Back at the house, they would make new leaders, using a micrometer to ensure they were legal. One year, they went through six hundred yards of leader material. They tied and re-tied flies, reusing hooks from chewed-up flies.

But as the trips wore on, nerves began to fray, legs and eyelids grew heavy, and things started to go a bit sideways. They skipped the jog.

Huff’s hands got stuck in a clench and went totally numb from poling all day. He slept with them over the side of the bed to try to get the blood back in them, and it still took forty-five minutes in the morning to get full feeling back. His fingernails grew at an angle toward the pole, and still do to this day. (Dale Perez, a fellow guide, had to get operations on both of his hands after years of gripping the push pole.)

One evening, Evans went out to get a pizza. He came back, put the pizza on a table, and began to tie leaders as Huff tied flies on the couch. Suddenly, Evans got a cramp in his leg and pitched forward, falling onto the pizza and breaking the table in two. “Huff just sat there and didn’t say a word and kept tying flies,” says Evans. “There is no way humans can be civil with each other with no sleep.”

Huff was demanding, on himself and on Evans. He’s often said that if he ever writes an autobiography, it will be called Just Shove It, which works for both the poling he’s done for a livelihood and his lack of patience for bullshit. He has never been a yeller, like Apte was when he was a guide. But this was a team sport. He’d pole for forty-five minutes to get Evans in a position to cast. If Evans missed, Huff would remain quiet for half an hour, and then utter, out of nowhere, “Well, you fucked that one up.” Sometimes when Evans missed badly on a cast, Huff would say, “That fly was closer to the fish before you cast.”

He poled so hard sometimes that Evans fell out of the boat and into the water. They began to call the little casting platform on Huff’s boat “the launching pad.”

And yet, Evans loved it, even craved it. He had found a guide who was very much like a demanding football coach who brought out the best in him. “We were taking it all to the absolute extreme,” says Evans. “I used to get so excited out on the water that I couldn’t breathe.”

By the late 1970s, “the sky was the limit,” says Evans. “We were doing incredible things, hitting our stride, and I was excited because I thought we could do even more incredible things as a team.”

That, as it turned out, would not be the case.

Monte Burke is the New York Times bestselling author of Saban, 4th And Goal and Sowbelly. His new book, Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World-Record Tarpon, is available now (Pegasus; $27). He is a contributing editor at Forbes and Garden & Gun. Captain Steve Huff. Photo courtesy of IGFA B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L FA L L 2 0 2 0

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Make Clean Water And Healthy Flats A Part Of Your Legacy.

Consider making a planned gift to Bonefish & Tarpon Trust to ensure the health of the flats fishery for generations to come.

Learn more by visiting: www.btt.org/donate/legacy Photo: Pat Ford

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Uncharted Waters

BY MICHAEL ADNO

As countries reopen while others remain locked down, a complex relationship between the guiding industry and the fisheries they’re inextricably tied to has become apparent.

A tarpon caught and released in the Florida Keys. Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

I

n early March, the hum of Duval Street could still be felt as Will Benson edged onto a flat near downtown Key West. After a series of moves that carried us west, bouncing off the string of guides strewn across the flats, we ran out back and found a torrent of tarpon slipping through a basin. A curtain of rain drew over the backcountry as we laughed, talking as we had for years about where the world was and where it was headed. What haunted us then was not if but when the novel coronavirus would alter the sway of the world. In the following days, the Keys went dark as tourists were ordered to leave and hotels shuttered.

Three months later, the roadblocks along U.S. 1 preventing nonresidents from entering the Keys vanished as revelers returned to Duval and guides to their calendar, but with a fivefold increase in Florida’s cases, the height of their guiding season now in the rearview, and a community left reeling, it didn’t seem like a return to normalcy.

By mid-June, Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula welcomed tourists back, while neighboring Belize’s borders remained sealed. Across the Gulf in the Bahamas, July 1 marked the reopening of the islands with a stringent protocol for visitors to follow. And everywhere, guides felt

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the pandemic’s blow. They’d lost the most essential months of their season and were now wading into a new world where uncertainty seemed to be the only guarantee.

“The tourism industry is going to take a big hit,” said Benson, a Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Conservation Captain based in the Lower Keys, noting how the pandemic’s wake was only just starting to take shape. The intricate network of accommodation, entertainment, and most importantly comfort disintegrated for clients. Inevitably, the new frontier of travel coupled with the prolonged downturn would alter the arc of how guides earn their living and the industry’s structure itself. Benson figured there would be some reshuffling, a focus on adept marketing, and inevitably some volatility on their calendars. But ultimately the same characteristics that defined an exceptional guide before all this would hold true afterwards—hard work, effort, and careful attention paid to a changing world. “We have to play our best game,” he said.

There was cause for hope though. For the innumerable Americans looking to satisfy that saltwater urge, the Florida Keys will become one of a few destinations with renewed interest while international travel

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remains cumbersome. “We might be able to make up ground there,” Benson said. But despite the grim outlook, these past three months might provide scientists a rare opportunity to take the temperature of these fisheries with reduced pressure.

outsized growth of low-cost entertainment that followed the cruise ships—jet skis, water slides, amounting to “relentless pressure.” He explained how this effort was anything but a magic bullet, but instead a “ceasefire.”

While three months isn’t a significant period of time for a fish like tarpon that lives for more than 50 years, the pandemic occurred at a particularly ripe moment during permit’s spawning season, reducing the amount of fish caught and thereby mortality rates. “That means permit were able to spawn undisturbed,” said Dr. Ross Boucek, BTT’s Florida Keys Initiative Manager. “They’re not having to look over their shoulder every second.” Two to three years from now, Boucek predicted that the Keys and elsewhere might have a stronger class of permit than previous years due to reduced fishing pressure and boat traffic. “Hopefully we’ll be able to track this.”

“We hope we’re going to arrest the decline of our Key West tarpon fishery,” he added.

Over the last 45 years, Captain John Donnell, an Upper Keys guide, has watched the fish come and go, mapping their rhythms. And even with the reduced pressure and traffic, he found this past season average. “There were fewer guides, and I wasn’t worried about getting where I wanted to get,” he explained, but the numbers of fish seemed unchanged. It was a common thread echoed by guides throughout the island chain. “The fish were average, but I had total confidence that if anglers got a fly in front of them that they were going to eat,” Donnell said. While there may not have been more fish pouring through the Keys, the fish that were present were likely a bit less stressed, and in turn, it lowered the index of suspicion for bonefish, tarpon, and permit—something we all vie for when faced with a shot.

“The truth is that the world isn’t going back to what it was, and that point’s not open for debate,” Benson said, and then he chewed on it for a moment before asking, “So, what kind of world do we want to have after this?”

Over the past 20 years, the cruise ship industry became an unavoidable part of Key West, accounting for more than 50 percent of the island’s annual tourists yet only eight percent of Key West’s revenue. But for decades if not centuries before, the Northwest Channel that ferries ships between the Gulf and the Florida Straits served as a staging area for tarpon during their migration, and so the abrupt end to cruise ships entering the Harbor afforded scientists the chance to see where fish might return. “This gives us the opportunity to gather information that may be relevant to considerations of protections in some areas,” Boucek said.

But the pall of the coronavirus had another unexpected byproduct, too. It was the global frustration with the cruise ship industry. In Key West, a front formed to reduce the industry’s footprint and limit the number of visitors, and posed big questions about just what Key West might look like in the years to come. Benson, who is now part of the Key West Committee for Safer Cleaner Ships, noted the

And while Boucek found promise in the campaign, he explained that cruise ships are just one among many issues affecting the fisheries, as well as the streams of revenue they generate and the ways of life inextricably tied to them. The issues that rose to the surface were the gossamer web of Florida’s water management problems that has long plagued the State, the need to protect spawning fish, and sleeper issues like wastewater treatment in the Keys.

“The Keys were so lucky in the sense that we have a resident population, so that the industry was able to sustain on a low burn for a while, but in places like Belize that are so reliant on international travel, those lodges are completely shut down,” Boucek said, noting how there are few if any answers for what the coming months hold.

Across the Yucatán in Belize, guide Omar Arceo, a BTT Conservation Captain from San Pedro, told me, “We’re in bad shape. We went to zero—boom. No tourists, no fishermen, no nothing. We don’t know what to do.”

At the end of March as America began its lockdown, Arceo asked his clients to leave. “Go,” he told them, “Please go.” As with any remote location, anglers risked falling ill and possibly overwhelming the limited resources. But with each passing week, the thought of returning to the water grew more and more distant for Arceo. With a client base that is almost entirely composed of North Americans, he worried about the tourism industry in coastal Belize as well as the prolonged harm to the guiding industry if the United States didn’t gain control of the virus’ spread. He noted how diligently the Belizean government and agencies worked in the past months to eliminate risks for visitors, sealing their borders, developing safeguards for when visitors do return, and confirming only a mere 30 cases nationally.

While he’s written 2020 off as a loss, Arceo explained that safety was

Anglers in search of bonefish in Andros. Photo: Marty Dashiell B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L FA L L 2 0 2 0

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paramount. “We want to set an example for the world,” he told me.

Reopening too soon would only prolong the fallout. And as he said, “I’m totally broke, because I rely heavily on the industry. Everybody is like that. We need the industry.”

As to what he saw on the water, a bit of optimism crept into his voice.

“It looks good,” he said.

One hundred miles north from San Pedro in Punta Allen, Mexico, Juan Carlos “Charly” Rendon echoed Arceo’s sentiment.

Rendon, also a BTT Conservation Captain, was torn. Since March 16, he’s remained off the water and isolated for the most part as Mexico’s case count soared above 250,000 and claimed more than 30,000 lives. The incessant throng of tourists that once flooded the Yucatán vanished, and even after the region reopened on June 15, Rendon remained without clients in July. Of course, he hoped anglers would return soon, but with that hope came the understanding that they would need to feel comfortable doing so. Recently, he ran out and poled a set of flats with another guide. What they found was a wealth

of permit, a glimmer of hope that seemed to suggest the future here in this corner of the world holds promise.

Following the westerlies across the Yucatán Channel and then inexorably across the Florida Straits to Andros in the Bahamas, fellow guide and BTT Conservation Captain Andy Smith found himself alone on the front of his skiff. It had been a full year since he stood there last, and even longer than he cared to remember since he’d found himself fishing alone, casting in the very places his family had for three generations. On both sides of his family, Smith is a thirdgeneration bonefish guide, and his father, Charlie Smith, is one of the most recognized names in fly-fishing, in part due to his “Crazy Charlie” shrimp variation.

When I spoke to Smith, who was holed up at Broad Shad Cay Lodge in the Central Bight, he explained how bonefishing drives the economy here and in so many places throughout the country. “When that shuts down, the whole community shuts down,” he said. “Nothing moves.”

In Florida, Belize, Mexico, and the Bahamas, guides derive the lion’s

A Belizean guide scans an empty horizon. Photo: Scott Morrison

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“If we give nature a chance, it’ll surprise us.” – Capt. Will Benson Caption Will Benson prepares to release an acoustically tagged permit in the Florida Keys. Photo: Ian Wilson

share of their income as spring spills into summer. “Losing those three months,” Smith explained, “That’s tough.” But with the Bahamas reopening on July 1, he felt concerned, noting how widespread the virus was along the East Coast of America where most of his clients come from. (At press time, the Bahamas had again closed to US visitors as of late July.) What haunted Smith was that if clients did return and became ill, they’d be a long run or flight from medical care. “It’s okay to open it up and say you’re going to make some money,” he said, “but what’s the long-term effect after you do that?”

“I prefer to be healthy and tough it out a little longer until we get this under control,” he said, “But it’s not my call.” It was a complicated feeling, one that guides seemed to share around the world. It articulated a question about the ethics of how guides engage with the world in addition to the fishery, and that question seemed to be whether a hasty reopening would only prolong the economic sting and by proxy prolong the harm done to the industry that has remained a constant safeguard against habitat degradation and the character of these places.

“We want to make sure everyone is safe and healthy first,” Smith told me. “The fishing isn’t going anywhere. The people who make their livelihood from the fishing industry are still here.”

And then after Smith gathered the words, he said, “We’re still here.”

Michael Adno contributes regularly to The New York Times, The Surfer’s Journal, and The Bitter Southerner, where he won a James Beard Award for profile writing last year. He lives in his hometown, Sarasota, Florida, along the Gulf of Mexico.

A Bahamas bonefish. Photo: Adrian Gray

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Through the Guides

A Q&A with Conservation Captains

Photo courtesy of Showndre David

Captain Showndre David

Photo: Dr. Jake Brownscombe

Captain Rob Kramarz

Bimini, Bahamas

Key West, Florida

How long have you been a guide?

I’ve been a guide since the age of 12. I started to take people out alone at 16.

I bought my own boat and started my own business at the age of 17 and am currently 19. I first got into guiding under my father, Bonefish Ebbie. He wanted me to learn and improve upon his legacy, which I’m currently working on.

What makes the Florida Keys unique for flats fishing?

To me, the Keys are such a vast and diverse biosphere that on any given day you have the opportunity to pursue multiple species in areas that can change within a 20-minute boat ride. You can start your day on the oceanside flats, then work your way out back and fish on grass flats or mangroves, then move to channel edges and then finally make it to the Gulf edge flats.

In what ways have you helped BTT with research?

I have been a local guide for BTT for two spawning seasons, and am now showing them potential locations of aggregating bonefish.

What is one thing you’ve learned about bonefish in your pre-spawning aggregation studies with BTT? One thing can’t cover all the knowledge and experience I’ve gained from the BTT team I’ve worked with. For example, I’ve learned that bonefish are fish of habit and will always return to the same spot in which they have aggregated in the past, even after being spooked. Also, the red abrasions on females mean they’ve already spawned.

Aside from guiding, what activities do you do out on the water?

After (almost) mastering bonefishing, I decided to learn everything I possibly could about the ocean since my passion for it is so strong. I’m an amateur spearo, a dedicated shark feeder, a scuba diver and I’m trying to get instructor certifications in both freediving and scuba diving. I’m also a boat captain. To see exactly what I do, you can check out my Instagram account: @privateers242.

Do you often see pollution when on the water?

Pollution is not up for debate. It’s everywhere. As a conservationist, I do my best to clean up as much of it as I can. I’m planning on combating the issue with my team in the near future to keep our Bahamas as beautiful as they should be.

What is your favorite guiding story?

Oh gosh, there are so many stories, but two particular ones stand out. One is when I took out a Nebraskan family. I thought I saw a permit and had one of the kids cast at it. The fish crushed the lure. The fight lasted 35 minutes on a tiny 2000 spinner with 10-pound braid. After landing the monster, it turned out to be a 25-pound jack crevalle, which aren’t local. I was happy for the kid—it was the biggest fish he had ever caught! Another good story was when Justin Lewis (BTT Bahamas Iniative Manager) lost half his rod to a big bonefish I put him on when I took him out fishing. The reason I guide isn’t for the money—it’s to give people an amazing experience and memories for a lifetime.

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What kind of work have you done with BTT? Most of the work that I have done with BTT deals with Project Permit. I had the honor back in 2014 of being involved with the first two permit to ever have been tagged with satellite tracking devices, which are used to assist in the science of understanding their movements.

What is your favorite guiding story?

Hands down my favorite guiding story would have to be a father and son team from Boston who booked three days of permit fishing in May 2014. Not really the best month to book for permit, but it was a nice break from the tarpon grind. The weather of the first two mornings was not even close to the forecast, and it was dismally raining, but conditions improved enough both days that we could get the afternoon in. Over these two afternoons, father and son each captured their first permit, and they had each hooked four permit with both getting three to the boat. Eight permit in eight hours of fishing! Unreal. Their last day had beautiful weather, but we were scaring every fish we encountered. I could sense the frustration in both, so as we made our way back to the ramp, they explained that they were perplexed as to why they were not catching on this perfect day. To ease or add to their confusion, my response was simple… “That’s permit fishing!” I also asked them to give me a call when they finally realized what they had accomplished in those three days. Well, that call only came in 2019, but now we get to continue the hunt together for permit twice a year!

How do you try to be environmentally-friendly as a guide?

There has definitely been an increase in plastic pollution since I’ve become a guide. I have started requesting that my clients not purchase single-use plastic for a day on the water. I also ask them to help out by pointing out and picking up any ocean debris, and we do our part to make the Keys as pristine as possible. Kick Plastic!

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some places are too special.

THE BRISTOL BAY REGION OF ALASKA IS TOO SPECIAL TO BE PUT AT RISK BY THE PROPOSED PEBBLE MINE, YET THE MINE'S KEY PERMIT IS SLATED TO BE ISSUED IN 2020.

American hunters and anglers can help stop it.

Do your part: SaveBristolBay.org/TellPresidentTrump

Fly Out Media AlaskaFlyOut.com B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L FA L L 2 0 2 0

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The First Line of Defense

Mangrove Restoration Set to Begin in Northern Bahamas

BY ASHLEIGH SEAN ROLLE

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’d never seen anything like it,” Dr. Michael Steinberg of the University of Alabama said, recalling the moment he saw the state of the mangroves in East Grand Bahama following Hurricane Dorian. “You’re used to seeing palettes of green and blue, but I’ve never seen so much gray stretching for miles in what should have been a vibrant ecosystem.”

In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian swept through the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama leaving behind complete devastation.

With a hurricane of that magnitude, the first and justifiable priority was ensuring the safety of a population that had seen its fair share of storms—but nothing on the level of a Category 5 storm like Hurricane Dorian.

Dorian destroyed most of the Abaco chain of islands and stalled over Grand Bahama for 48 hours. The immediate needs in the midst and aftermath of this disastrous hurricane were damage control and basic human necessities. Governments, local aid organizations, and community groups worked to ensure that people had food, access to clean water and shelter, and were reunited with loved ones. Yet, on the periphery of this very real human tragedy was the environmental

destruction that couldn’t be ignored: mangrove deforestation.

Mangroves play two important roles in the Bahamas. They sustain biodiversity, and also are key to preventing erosion caused by waves from storms.

“Mangroves are a collection that refers to an assemblage of tree species that are saltwater tolerant,” explained Dr. Steinberg. “They provide structure for biodiversity. If you’ve ever snorkeled through a mangrove, you see the trees and roots above the water, but when you get below the water you see hundreds of species ranging from juvenile fish and crabs, sponges to starfish and seahorses.” The underwater wonderland of mangroves described by Dr. Steinberg forms the foundation of the coastal ecosystem upon which bonefish and many other species depend.

In addition to serving as a nursery for juvenile species, mangroves play a key role in protecting the mainland from the full impact of storms that hit island nations like the Bahamas and coastal communities around the world. Their intricate root system also acts as what Dr. Steinberg calls “a stabilizing force,” keeping sediment in place and preventing shoreline erosion. In an era of rising sea level

Thrift Harbour, Grand Bahama. Photo: Justin Lewis B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L FA L L 2 0 2 0

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Dr. Mike Steinberg and Dr. Jordan Cissell conduct groundtruthing to inform their maps of mangrove damage from Hurricane Dorian. Photo: Justin Lewis

and more active hurricane seasons, mangroves are an increasingly important shield protecting shorelines and creek systems from stormdriven waves.

With over 70 percent of mangroves in Grand Bahama and 40 percent in Abaco damaged or destroyed as a result of Hurricane Dorian, environmental stakeholders Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT), Bahamas National Trust (BNT), Friends of the Environment and MANG knew that action needed to be taken.

Launching the Northern Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project is one way that these stakeholders have proven their commitment to the Northern Bahamas.

“Being that storms are going to be present for a long time, I think we really need to have a more hands-on approach from humans,” says Kyle Rossin, the cofounder of MANG, which is one of the key partners in this monumental undertaking. MANG was founded by Rossin and his twin brother Keith. MANG’s sole purpose was to create mangrove camouflage clothing that would in turn fund the planting of mangroves around the world. With a mission of planting one million mangroves by the year 2021, it’s apparent why a mangrove restoration project in the Bahamas would be in their wheelhouse.

BTT Bahamas Initiative Manager Justin Lewis collects red mangrove propagules for planting in nurseries in preparation for restoration.

Photo: Justin Lewis

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A project of this scale and magnitude has many moving parts.

“Mangrove restoration has been done in the Bahamas before, but not at this scale,” explained Justin Lewis, BTT’s Bahamas Initiative Manager. “There is a total area of 67 square miles of damaged mangroves between Abaco and Grand Bahama—that’s a huge area! But we are up to the challenge. We are going to need to plant thousands upon thousands of mangroves in order to start mangrove recovery. The purpose of this restoration is not to replace every mangrove that was lost, but instead plant as many saplings as we can in areas where they can grow to be adult size, successfully reproduce, and have their propagules (seeds) dispersed over a vast area to reseed surrounding areas where mangrove damage occurred.”

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So how exactly will it be done? Mangrove propagules will be collected throughout the Bahamas and Florida, and planted in small pots in nurseries that will be set up in Grand Bahama, Abaco, and Florida. Research has shown that just planting propagules results in a high failure rate, so the nurseries will be used to grow the propagules into seedlings, which have a much higher survival rate. Seedlings grown in Florida will be transported to Grand Bahama and Abaco once they reach appropriate size. These seedlings will be placed in nurseries in Grand Bahama and Abaco until teams begin the restoration process.

“We’re in for the long haul. I don’t foresee myself working with anything other than mangroves for the rest of my life,” said Rossin.

His statement isn’t one of hyperbole; it’s rooted in realism. A project of this undertaking is not one that can just be started and forgotten about in a year’s time. This restoration is projected to have a timeline of five years, which means all hands need to be on deck.

There will be an education component to the project as well. “School groups and The Bahamas National Trust’s Discovery Club will all be educated about the important role these ecosystems play in our communities, with flats fishing guides helping to lead the charge of educational and environmental activism,” said Lewis. “These

groups will not just learn about the structure of mangroves and their importance, but they will also be taking an active role raising and planting the mangroves.”

According to Dr. Steinberg, who led the study that mapped the extent of mangrove destruction, “mangrove deforestation rivals or is higher than the tropical deforestation that tends to get most of the press.”

This project represents an incredible way for humans to make a positive impact on coastal ecosystems while drawing much needed attention to the fact that mangroves are necessary, not just for the safety of the hundreds of organisms that create life within them, but for our own safety as well.

In five years’ time the stark gray that Hurricane Dorian left in its wake will hopefully be a distant memory as we gaze out at the rich green that will replace it. Until then, there is much work to be done and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, The Bahamas National Trust, Friends of The Environment, and MANG are keen to get started.

Ashleigh Sean Rolle is a Bahamian writer who calls Freeport, Grand Bahama, her home. She writes for the site 10th Year Seniors, where she regularly shares her opinion on everyday Bahamian affairs. She is a contributor for Huff Post. Her work has also appeared at CNN.com.

Red mangrove propagules planted in a nursery on Grand Bahama are growing into seedlings, which will be transplanted as part of the restoration project.

Photo: Justin Lewis B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L FA L L 2 0 2 0

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Circle of Honor

BTT Honors Conservation Leaders

BY KRIS MILLGATE Captain Bob Branham poles an angler on the flats of Biscayne Bay. Photo: Carlton Ward

The future of the flats fishery depends on the actions we take today. Bonefish & Tarpon Trust honors annually individuals whose commitment to flats conservation is demonstrated through their leadership, advocacy, service, and support. The recipients in 2021 will be Captain Bob 62

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Branham and the late Captain Bill Curtis, who will be enshrined in the BTT Circle of Honor at BTT’s annual induction ceremony in Islamorada in January, and Sandy Moret, Chico Fernandez and Dr. Andy Danylchuk, who will be recognized at the 7th International Science Symposium next November.

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individuals receiving the award next January in Islamorada.

Branham’s commitment to the fishery dates back to his earliest days on the water. He was one of the first guides to open his boat to researchers trying to tag fish, giving up paid days on the water with clients to do it. More recently, he has continued to devote hours on the water in support of BTT’s major initiative focusing on bonefish spawning.

“That’s not easy for guides,” said Jeff Harkavy, BTT Founding Member and CoH Selection Committee Chair. “Most of them make enough to get by, but not be comfortable. Giving up days is a relevant and meaningful thing. Bob has donated many days for science and research.”

He’s also proficient with more than a boat. If he’s not chasing fish with a rod, he’s chasing birds with a lens.

“He spends a lot of time out in the Everglades taking photographs,” said Carl Hiaasen, a renowned journalist and novelist who grew up with Branham. “When he’s not poling a boat, he’s in the Everglades taking pictures of eagles, hawks and storks. That’s Bob. That’s where he has to be. There’s all kinds of life going on around you and that experience is worth fighting for. Not just for your customers, but for your soul. That’s what he’s always done.”

Photo courtesy of Bob Branham

CAPTAIN BOB BRANHAM THE CIRCLE OF HONOR GUIDE/ANGLER AWARD BTT’s Circle of Honor recognizes accomplished guides and anglers who demonstrate a genuine commitment to conservation through volunteer service, advocacy and other outreach that benefits the fishery. South Florida guide Captain Bob Branham will be one of two

CAPTAIN BILL CURTIS CIRCLE OF HONOR GUIDE/ANGLER AWARD - POSTHUMOUS The late Captain Bill Curtis was a pioneering guide on Biscayne Bay and an early proponent of science-based conservation to protect tarpon, even suggesting that a “Tarpon Unlimited” organization be founded before throwing in with the fledgling BTT. His legend has previously earned him a place in the IGFA Hall of Fame and at “Curtis Point,” so named by how often you could find the Curtis boat there— early and already anchored.

Captain Bill Curtis. Photo: Pat Ford B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L FA L L 2 0 2 0

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“You see a boat on Curtis Point, you wonder where you’re going to go instead,” said Adelaide Skoglund, a BTT founding member and former fishing client of Curtis’s. “It’s where fish funnel in at a certain depth because they like to eat in the grass. It’s a wonderful spot to tarpon fish for fish going south and then for fish coming back north.”

On the rare occasion that the Point wasn’t producing, Curtis would call fellow inductee Branham and his buddy Hiaasen for their latest catch report.

“Those days we had marine radios and he’d call us and ask us if we were catching anything,” Hiaasen said. “At the end of the day, we went to his house just to listen to his stories. Back then you didn’t need elaborate flies. Bill tied simple patterns. The best was his oatmeal box fly, a crab-shaped body cut out of cardboard for permit.”

Permit, tarpon, bonefish. Curtis chased them all, especially tarpon to Curtis Point and back over and over again.

“Bill is a sport original. He made tarpon fishing a desirable thing to do,” Skoglund said. “If you look back, he’s one of the ones who made conservation of fish necessary. He deserves this award. It’s a special one. It’s too bad he’s not around to receive it.”

SANDY MORET THE LEFTY KREH AWARD “The Lefty Kreh Award is the highest honor we give,” said Jim McDuffie, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust President and CEO. “It’s significant because it represents a person’s lifetime of achievement in conservation and their enduring commitment to our flats fishery.”

This year that person is Sandy Moret, a vocal leader in the fight to restore the Everglades, a founding member of BTT, and an accomplished angler. Moret won the Keys’ most prestigious fly tournaments—the Gold Cup Tarpon Tournament and the Islamorada Invitational Bonefish Fly Championship—eight times and was a frequent guest on Flip Pallot’s Walker’s Cay Chronicles and Andy Mill’s Sportsman’s Adventures. Also an exceptional teacher, Moret founded the Florida Keys Fly Fishing School in Islamorada in the late 1980s and then Florida Keys Outfitters in 1992.

Moret’s is a classic “you-save-what-you-love” story.

“It didn’t take Sandy long to realize how manmade changes to the Everglades landscape were impacting the fishery he loved,” said McDuffie. “He’s been involved in Everglades restoration issues ever since, more than 40 years in all, and really doubled-down on his commitment beginning in 2015 as leader of the Now or Neverglades coalition. Each group in the coalition had its own take on how to fix the problem but, by playing the role of convener, Sandy helped us find a sweet spot for collective action. We, in turn, were successful in securing passage of SB10, which authorized a southern reservoir to store, treat and send water south to Florida Bay.” Moret is also someone acclaimed flats fishing guide and fellow Florida Keys Fly Fishing School Instructor Steve Huff is honored to call a friend. The two met 40 years ago when Huff donated a fishing trip for a tournament. Moret won the trip.

“I remember we were going to fish for tarpon. We got caught in a horrendous storm. We didn’t see a thing. It was just awful. We vowed to try again one day and we went again and again and again,” said Huff. “Forty years ago, I could barely get him to come home. Now he’s always ready. He’s gotten wiser and I haven’t. He’s a great friend, more like a brother. It’s one of the greatest relationships in my life.”

Moret’s commitment to close friends is just as fierce when it comes to fish. He started fishing the Keys in the 1970s. He saw water management problems before they were on anyone’s radar. Then he acted.

“In all my days of fishing thousands of people over thousands of days, there’s only a handful of people that truly get it,” Huff said.

“The real truth is, fishing is such a big part of Sandy’s life he feels it’s necessary to give something back. He really cares about this country and this watershed. He’s an honest, decent human being. He’s dedicated to the sport of fly-fishing and he’s worked so hard for so many years. If he isn’t worthy of this award then there’s not a human being alive that is.”

Photo courtesy of Sandy Moret

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Photo courtesy of Chico Fernandez

CHICO FERNANDEZ THE CURT GOWDY MEMORIAL MEDIA AWARD

Dr. Andy Danylchuk. Photo: D. Van Der Merwe

DR. ANDY DANYLCHUK FLATS STEWARDSHIP AWARD

Legendary sportscaster Curt Gowdy was one of BTT’s great early ambassadors. The award given in his memory celebrates other individuals who advance saltwater conservation through media outreach. This year, the well-deserved honor goes to pioneering saltwater angler, author and teacher, Chico Fernandez, who is as prolific with words as he is with a fly rod and tying vise.

Fernandez’s writing and photography has appeared in hundreds of fishing magazines and books over the decades, influencing generations of fly anglers. More recently, he assembled the wealth of his expertise into two essential books on fly-fishing—Fly-fishing for Bonefish and Fly-fishing for Redfish.

Longtime Friend Flip Pallot has known Fernandez since soon after the young Cuban native arrived in South Florida from his native Cuba in 1959.

“Everyone hung out at a tackle shop south of Miami. We met there one day,” Pallot said. “He was the first person I met in my life who spoke two languages and I was fascinated by that. Immediately we started running around together. We were kids interested in fly-fishing when fly-fishing was being born on saltwater.”

Fernandez began fishing in his Cuba as a young boy, became an expert fly angler once in Florida, and today is known as a great teacher and communicator. He still gets his greatest joy from fishing the same South Florida backwaters he first explored with Flip Pallot and remains a tireless advocate for flats conservation and BTT’s science-based programs to achieve it.

The recipient of the 2020 Flat Stewardship Award is Dr. Andy Danylchuk, Professor of Fish Conservation at University of Massachusetts Amherst and a BTT Research Fellow. He also serves as Director of the Five College Coastal and Marine Sciences Program; an Ambassador for Patagonia, Thomas and Thomas, and Sight Line Provisions; and is also a National Fellow of The Explorers Club.

Dr. Danylchuk has authored or co-authored more than 45 scientific publications focusing on flats species. These have included studies on catch and release, movement ecology and early observations of bonefish moving offshore to spawn. He is also the Principal Investigator on the BTT’s tarpon telemetry project, which is studying the population connectivity, movements and habitat uses of 200 acoustically-tagged tarpon.

“We appreciate our partnership with Andy through his role as a collaborating scientist and Research Fellow,” said Jim McDuffie. “The Tarpon Acoustic Tagging Project is rewriting the book on what was previously known about tarpon movement and will inform our efforts to further improve tarpon management.”

In addition to the research he conducts, McDuffie said Danylchuk was an effective communicator of the knowledge gained through science, using every opportunity available to him to share it with anglers, guides, resource managers and other stake holders.

Outdoor journalist Kris Millgate is based in Idaho where she runs trail and chases trout. Sometimes she even catches them when she doesn’t have a camera, or a kid, on her back. See more of her work at www.tightlinemedia.com.

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2021 Artist of the Year

Jim Rataczak

2021 BTT Artist of the Year Jim Rataczak. Photo courtesy of Jim Rataczak

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onefish & Tarpon Trust is pleased to recognize Jim Rataczak

as the 2021 Artist of the Year. Rataczak’s paintings reflect

his passion for the natural world, especially birds and the scenic places they inhabit.

“I have known Jim for three decades, starting when he was relatively new at making a living painting,” said Bill Legg, who chairs the Artist of the Year Selection Committee. “Jim would send me paintings to get my thoughts on composition. Mostly I just bought them and now have more than a dozen. The Artist of the Year Committee thought that it would be an interesting change this year to feature a study of mangrove bird life. I find I spend more time watching our Florida birds when fishing than fishing.”

Born in 1965, Rataczak grew up on a lake in rural Minnesota. He began drawing at a young age, and even his earliest drawings and paintings were inspired by his experiences outdoors. Rataczak intended to study art in college, but found the academic world better suited to his strong interest in science. He earned a BS in Biology from the University of Notre Dame, and soon thereafter a master’s degree from the University of Michigan. Few who know Jim would be surprised that his graduate research focused on bird behavior.

Work for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Brookfield (IL) Zoo followed. Rataczak then received a fellowship from the historic Delta Waterfowl Research Station, located in the “pothole” country of the Canadian prairies. Here, Rataczak was immersed in a rich breeding ground of myriad birds, and these surroundings rekindled his lifelong passion for art. It wasn’t long before he realized he needed to make painting his life’s work.

Rataczak returned from Canada driven to paint. While living in Chicago, he studied voraciously at the Field Museum of Natural

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History and the Art Institute of Chicago, and pursued birds up and down the shores of Lake Michigan. His zeal for field sketching took permanent hold at this time, and he discovered the work of such masters of the craft as Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Bruno Liljefors and Lars Jonsson.

“Lugging a spotting scope, sketchbook, paint, and pencils outside can be a lot of work,” said Rataczak. “But field sketching is the foundation of my work as a bird artist. It trains my eyes to see, and my hand to record, interesting shapes, colors, and events.”

In the 1990s, Rataczak and his wife moved back to Minnesota, and soon he began exhibiting his work professionally. His work has since garnered numerous awards, appeared in books and national publications, including The New York Times, and become part of collections across North America.

“My hope is that my work will encourage viewers to take a second look at the natural world, to make them want to be outside and deepen their own connections with nature,” said Rataczak.

Today, Rataczak, his wife and children, make their home north of St. Paul, Minnesota. Their home backs up to 1,000 acres of marsh, creek, woods, and fields, serving as inspiration for his work.

Jim Rataczak’s painting of snowy egrets and mangroves will be offered for sale at Copley’s Winter Sale 2021, which will take place February 14-16 in Charleston, SC, in conjunction with the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will benefit Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. Each year since 2011, Copley Fine Art Auctions has sold a new work by BTT’s Artist of the Year in support of the organization.

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Right: Low Country Totem, Jim Rataczak, 22x20, oil on linen Below: Sweet Song of Spring, Jim Rataczak, 20x34, oil on linen

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Support Bonefish & Tarpon Trust With A Charitable Gift From Your IRA If you are 70 ½ or older, you can use your required minimum distributions to make gifts directly to Bonefish & Tarpon Trust from your IRA. To learn more, please contact BTT Director of Development Mark Rehbein at:

mark@bonefishtarpontrust.org.

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Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006)

Bonefish 26, Two Bonefish and Coral Clump with Crab at Chub Cay, oil on mounted canvas (20”x28”)

Master of illustration and creator of an entirely new genre of sporting art, Stanley Meltzoff was among the most influential American artists of the 20th century.

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