26 minute read
Habitat in Management
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
Juvenile tarpon and snook habitat. Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams
ealthy Habitat = Healthy Fisheries. This has long been a BTT mantra, and anglers worth their salt H 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 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,
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. 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.
Raymond Floyd Trades the Fairway for the Flats
BY MONTE BURKE
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 D 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
Raymond Floyd on the water. Photo: BTT
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.”
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
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.
Tracking The Silver King What we’ve learned from acoustic telemetry
BY TOM BIE
In the spring of 1956, a small team of scientists led by Seattlebased 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 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
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
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
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!
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. 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.” 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. “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.”
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
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?” “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
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
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.
