|
Earlier this month, Dolphinfish Research Program (DRP) personnel embarked on our fourth tagging expedition to North Carolina over the last 15 months to enhance data collection on dolphin fishing off the Outer Banks. In total, through eight outings, our team has tagged and released 212 dolphinfish aboard Marlin Gull, Dr. Ike Blakemore's 55' Buddy Cannady, and 8 fish aboard Mr. Joey Colkitt's Seahorse, a 37' Grady-White. From these deployments, five recaptures have been generated, and we have deployed five satellite tags on dolphin and
| |
|
one on a wahoo. The 30" wahoo remains at large (image left). As for the dolphin recaptures, four were short-term recoveries (1 to 4 days at liberty), which were reported by the charter fleet or recreational anglers, and one was a long-term movement to Puerto Rico (275 days at liberty). In terms of
| |
|
the satellite tags, four of the five tags remained on the fish for 3 days or more, with a maximum monitoring period of 29.11 days. Two of the five satellite tags provided geolocation estimates, and three fish utilized the Gulf Stream as the fish moved into the North Atlantic. The average movement rate for those fish was 47 miles per day with an average bearing of 67 degrees or east-northeast from the Outer Banks. Another key facet of this work is that all fish are being targeted using non-offset circle hooks, and during the recent tagging expedition of the 107 dolphinfish tagged, only 18 were kept due to poor hooking location. Click here to learn more.
| |
Reported releases from January 1, 2025, to September, 28, 2025, continue to have our program headed for a strong year of data collection throughout the Western Central Atlantic and Eastern Tropical Pacific Oceans (7th highest to date). In total, 101 named vessels have tagged and released dolphinfish in 2025. From these tag deployments, 40 new movements have been generated. These movements can be viewed at dolphintagging.com/map.
| |
Support Our Work - Shop or Donate!
| |
September Mid-Atlantic Bight
(MAB) Recaptures (4)
| |
Late August Florida to
MAB Recaptures (2)
| |
The DRP's 25th Anniversary
| |
|
Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Dolphinfish Research Program (DRP). The last eight years of those 25 years have been under the management of the Beyond Our Shores Foundation, a 501(c)(3) founded to manage and expand the DRP as well as focus on other key fisheries research topics throughout the Western Central Atlantic (WCA) and Eastern Tropical Pacific Oceans (ETP). Over the last eight years, we have received support from 410 donors, in which many of whom are recurring annual supporters. It is only through the support of these individuals, as well as our corporate sponsors and program participants, that the DRP continues to compile new movement records and data on dolphinfish in the WCA and ETP. As of today, 39,537 dolphinfish have been tagged for the DRP, and 902 recaptures have been recorded. In addition, 132 satellite tags have been deployed on dolphinfish and 12 on wahoo. Collectively, these data have been used to publish 17 scientific articles, and the data is publicly available at dolphintagging.com/map. With two key scientific papers in preparation on detailed regional movement dynamics and catch and effort, as well as our ambitious distribution goals for 2026 (400 kits and 5,000 tags), we need your support to achieve these key outcomes. In 2025, we have distributed 247
| |
tagging kits, or 2,958 tags, and we estimate by year's end we will distribute at least 100 more kits or 1,500 more tags. Help the DRP continue to engage anglers in research and conservation of dolphin and wahoo in 2026. Click the icons below to shop or donate to support our program.
| |
|
| | Eastern Tropical Pacific Research Partners
| |
|
