Tag, You’re Permit

DEMYSTIFYING THE King of the Flats

Tagging studies yield valuable information about permit

BY NICK HONACHEFSKY | PHOTOS BY DR. AARON ADAMS

Permit are the undisputed kings of the flats. With their broad profiles, these fish are brawlers not easily tamed with a fly rod. Their scarcity adds to their mystique.

The sprawling sand flats of Belize are world famous for permit fishing. They draw anglers from around the globe looking to tangle with the yellow-tinged, silver bruisers. Those same flats and the permit who live there also allow for new research initiatives focused on the species.

Scientific studies are important tools in managing the species, especially in relatively remote areas such as Belize. The Bonefish and Tarpon Trust (BTT) has conducted a permit tagging program in Belize since 2010. “We’re looking to find patterns of permit movement and habitat use and apply that to Belize’s fisheries management strategy,” said Dr. Aaron Adams of the BTT. “The goal is to gather info from tag returns to inform management to make proper decisions on permit regulations as well as managing the degradation of coastal habitats in order to protect affected habitats.”

Muscular permit are built for speed and are equipped with Rafael de la Parra, the executive director for Ch’ooj Ajauil AC, tags a whale shark named powerful jaws that enable them to crush crustaceans. In the angling community, they are notorious as tacklebusting fighters. Rio Lady. You can follow her track via GHRITacking.org.

The BTT relies on various fishing lodges and individual flats guides in Belize to carry out the tagging program. The Belize River Lodge (BRL) along the Belize Olde River in central Belize has worked and supported the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust since 2010 and is actively involved with the permit tagging program.

“Permit in the central Belize area range in average from 5 to 30 pounds, though smaller and bigger fish are encountered,” the BRL reports. “We fish permit in the shallow tropical waters of 1 to 3 feet in depth such as mudflats, hard coral and sand flats. Permit are found as individuals or in small schools mainly, but some guests have reported schools with over 50 fish at different times. Our clients are focused on tarpon most of the time, but there are plenty of permit around to tag. If we focused on them as much as they do in southern Belize, we could really put up some big numbers of tagged fish.”

Adams said that hundreds of permit have been tagged in Belize thus far, but he is looking to increase that number into the thousands.

“One challenge is that permit, in general, are more sparse and generally harder to catch than bonefish, which makes it a bit more challenging,” he said. “Where we have 7,000 to 10,000 tagged bones to date, our goal is to tag between 4,000 and 6,000 permit in Belize and southern Mexico and hopefully recapture 300 to 400 in three years.” Though recreational fishing is a main way to get tags into fish, the BTT has also used seine nets in Belize to capture fish for tagging. Adams said that preliminary data have produced a couple of observations. “Permit in Belize have distinct home ranges and utilize a network of flats and stay in the same area for the most part,” he said. “The furthest recapture we have was one fish that was tagged in San Pedro, Belize, and recaptured in Xcalak, Mexico.” Permit have been observed, too, to spawn on reefs offshore and reef points frequented by sharks.

Tagged permit

DR. AARON ADAMS The coastal habitat off Belize is ideal for flats-cruising permit. By attracting anglers from throughout the world, the fish play an important role in the Central American nation’s tourist economy.

“In the Florida Keys, since the permit spawn offshore on the wrecks and reefs, we’ve found that up to 35% of hooked permit on those reefs get eaten by sharks on the way up,” Adams said. Data such as that might lead fisheries managers to close or limit fishing for permit during the spawning period if ever warranted by population declines.

At the BRL, too, returned tags are revealing much about permit.

“There can be quite large fish on the flats, including a 20-pounder returned in 2019, though there are many smaller fish out there to tag,” Adams said. “One group got into a school of feeding baby permit and managed to land 10 in the 4- to 8-pound range that day. While not normal, permit will school and feed together. Many smaller permit have been landed by our guides. However, our guides seemed to remember to tag only the bigger fish.”

While permit tagging is related to fish conservation, Belize has good reason from an economic perspective to protect permit stocks.

“The approximate total economic impact of the flats fishing in Belize amounts to $56 million,” said BTT marketing director Nick Roberts. “Most recently, BTT has partnered with co-managers (Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Sarteneja Alliance for Conservation and Development and Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association), fisheries (Caye Caulker Marine Reserve), local tour guide associations and other nongovernment organizations in an effort to create more educational knowledge on fish, habitats and their socio-economic importance and generate awareness to a general and widespread audience.”

Growing optimism surrounds BTT’s permit tagging program in Belize. As efforts are ramped up to tag more permit in coming years, returns should begin to generate a clearer picture of fish stocks and lead to better management in the future.

To learn more about the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust’s tagging efforts in Belize, or to become involved in the permit tagging program, visit BTT.org.