TY - JOUR
T1 - A decade-long connectivity study of Permit (Trachinotus falcatus) in Florida supports a spatial management approach
AU - Boucek, Ross E.
AU - Ellis, Robert D.
AU - Forauer, Andrew R.
AU - Adams, Aaron J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported with funding from Bonefish &d Tarpon Trust, Lower Keys Guides Association, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Funding Information:
We thank the dedicated anglers and for hire captains that assisted with deploying tags, recording recaptures, and donating time to host researchers on tagging trips. This project was supported with funding from Bonefish &d Tarpon Trust, Lower Keys Guides Association, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. We acknowledge Dr. Susan Lowerre-Barbieri (University of Florida), Dr. Jayne Gardiner and Tonya Wiley (University of Tampa), Andrea Kroetz (NOAA Fisheries Service-Southeast Fisheries Science Center), and Dr. Kim Bassos-Hull (MOTE) for providing Permit detections from their acoustic arrays. We also acknowledge the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), Florida Atlantic Coastal Telemetry network (FACT), and integrated Tracking of Aquatic Animals in the Gulf of Mexico (iTAG) for providing data hubs to facilitate acoustic telemetry data sharing.
Funding Information:
We thank the dedicated anglers and for hire captains that assisted with deploying tags, recording recaptures, and donating time to host researchers on tagging trips. This project was supported with funding from Bonefish &d Tarpon Trust, Lower Keys Guides Association, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. We acknowledge Dr. Susan Lowerre-Barbieri (University of Florida), Dr. Jayne Gardiner and Tonya Wiley (University of Tampa), Andrea Kroetz (NOAA Fisheries Service-Southeast Fisheries Science Center), and Dr. Kim Bassos-Hull (MOTE) for providing Permit detections from their acoustic arrays. We also acknowledge the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN), Florida Atlantic Coastal Telemetry network (FACT), and integrated Tracking of Aquatic Animals in the Gulf of Mexico (iTAG) for providing data hubs to facilitate acoustic telemetry data sharing.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - Understanding the scale of fish movements is essential to establish appropriate fisheries management boundaries. In Florida (USA), Permit (Trachinotus falcatus) is a valued recreational species as a sportfish and as table fare. The Permit fishery in Florida occurs in two geographic sectors: (1) in the Florida Keys and in Biscayne Bay, most anglers value Permit as a sportfish and generally practice catch and release; (2) north of the Florida Keys and Biscayne Bay, where a higher proportion of anglers are harvest oriented. In 2011, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) established a Special Permit Zone (SPZ) in the Florida Keys and Biscayne Bay to reduce harvest and to improve the shallow water flats fishery, but maintained regulations friendly to the harvest fishery in the remainder of the state. To determine the extent to which the SPZ is an effective spatial management tool to protect the South Florida sportfish fishery, we used a state-wide mark-recapture program and acoustic telemetry focused on tracking the northern fishery. Between March 2010 and August 2019, anglers dart tagged 1488 Permit, and we acoustically tagged 17 Permit. Only 28 dart-tagged fish were recaptured during the study period and just two of those had moved across the SPZ boundary; in addition, only one of the 17 telemetered fish migrated southward and was detected 3 km south of the SPZ boundary. These results corroborate previous research of Permit movements in the SPZ which also showed infrequent movement across the SPZ border. Thus, it appears that the current spatial approach to management of Permit in south Florida is appropriate.
AB - Understanding the scale of fish movements is essential to establish appropriate fisheries management boundaries. In Florida (USA), Permit (Trachinotus falcatus) is a valued recreational species as a sportfish and as table fare. The Permit fishery in Florida occurs in two geographic sectors: (1) in the Florida Keys and in Biscayne Bay, most anglers value Permit as a sportfish and generally practice catch and release; (2) north of the Florida Keys and Biscayne Bay, where a higher proportion of anglers are harvest oriented. In 2011, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) established a Special Permit Zone (SPZ) in the Florida Keys and Biscayne Bay to reduce harvest and to improve the shallow water flats fishery, but maintained regulations friendly to the harvest fishery in the remainder of the state. To determine the extent to which the SPZ is an effective spatial management tool to protect the South Florida sportfish fishery, we used a state-wide mark-recapture program and acoustic telemetry focused on tracking the northern fishery. Between March 2010 and August 2019, anglers dart tagged 1488 Permit, and we acoustically tagged 17 Permit. Only 28 dart-tagged fish were recaptured during the study period and just two of those had moved across the SPZ boundary; in addition, only one of the 17 telemetered fish migrated southward and was detected 3 km south of the SPZ boundary. These results corroborate previous research of Permit movements in the SPZ which also showed infrequent movement across the SPZ border. Thus, it appears that the current spatial approach to management of Permit in south Florida is appropriate.
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U2 - 10.1007/s10641-022-01302-z
DO - 10.1007/s10641-022-01302-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85148312430
SN - 0378-1909
VL - 106
SP - 181
EP - 192
JO - Environmental Biology of Fishes
JF - Environmental Biology of Fishes
IS - 2
ER -