The Big Picture

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

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

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

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

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

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

Knowledge is power

For BTT, before the organization could dive into the whole“making fishing better” effort through boots-on-the-ground restoration, it first had to understand the fish it wished to protect.

Since its inception in 1997, BTT has always relied on science to guide its conservation work. In fact, for the first few years of its existence, BTT was almost solely focused on working to understand the life histories of bonefish, tarpon and permit, with the hopes of being able to put the data its staffers collected to use in fisheries management.

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

Throughout its 25-year history, as BTT obtained more scientific information about the fish and their habitats, the organization applied that knowledge to conservation and management. Examples of this include regulating bonefish as catch and release-only in Florida, and the creation of the Special Permit Zone (SPZ) in the Florida Keys. This hyperfocus on conducting research with the specific intent of applying the results to conservation and management has been at the core of BTT’s mission since day one. Now, as BTT’s resources grow, the group is stepping up its efforts to influence conservation and management with the latest research data.

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

A holistic approach

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

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

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

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

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

die-offs that have occurred thanks to unnatural conditions. If it works, and that once pristine habitat again becomes fully functional, the fishing will rebound, too.

Swinging for the fences

Science goes a long way, and there are no plans to change the scientific foundation of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. But restoration…that’s the big leagues. When an organization goes beyond consultation (scientific or otherwise) to prioritizing moving dirt and channeling water into places where it’s needed, that’s a significant step. First, it costs more; BTT has the backing of its members, donors, leading fishing companies and boat manufacturers. The organization has also partnered with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), which contributes much of the funding needed to reconnect habitats—such as mangrove wetlands, which were disconnected from tidal flows by roads and other development. BTT is working closely with its state and other partners to implement the actual restoration.

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

Restoring Rookery Bay

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

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

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

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

Crucial connectivity

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

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

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

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

“Snook have a similar life history to tarpon,” Wilson said. “We combined our data with data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for Charlotte Harbor, and determined that if we protect habitats for juvenile snook, we also provide protection for 55 other species.”

This makes snook an ‘umbrella species,’ Wilson says— a concept adapted from work previously done with land animals.

“We are hopeful that this approach gains momentum in the marine fish world.”

Juvenile tarpon conservation in Southwest Florida

An ongoing study in the estuaries and coastal creeks of Southwest Florida is one where BTT cut its restoration teeth.

Starting in 2016, the organization enlisted the help of inshore anglers to help identify areas with significant populations of juvenile tarpon. The idea was to identify the habitats used by juvenile tarpon, determine which locations were still in good shape (so they could be protected), and prioritize degraded areas for restoration.

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

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

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

Recruitment drive

The enlisted anglers continued to provide much-needed help. Volunteers like Captain Josh Greer, owner of West Wall Outfitters in Southwest Florida, turned out to assist Wilson in her search for ideal tarpon habitat—the habitat models BTT could emulate when it came time to engage in restoration work.

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

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

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

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

Expert analysis

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

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

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

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

Bahamas mangrove restoration

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

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

A perfect storm

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

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

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

To date, Lewis said, BTT and its flotilla of guides and volunteers have planted more than 20,000 mangroves around Grand Bahama and Abaco. “They’re very important,” Lewis said of the mangroves of the Bahamas. “Without them, it’s possible some of our small islands wouldn’t even be islands at all.”

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

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

The big picture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it’s also the potential—it proves anglers, biologists and policymakers can work together toward a common goal.

“We’re on the cusp of seeing some huge progress,” Ralston said. “And that’s progress we can build on in the future.”

Chris Hunt

Chris Hunt is an award-winning freelance journalist and author and an avid fly fisher based in Idaho and Florida. He writes frequently about conservation, fly fishing and travel. HIs most recent book, “The Little Black Book of Fly Fishing,” is available online and at finer bookstores.