Every year, our tagging program receives recapture reports from anglers within the Caribbean Sea for fish released off the U.S. East Coast, but seldom do we receive multiple. So far in 2022, we have received three Caribbean Sea recoveries for fish released in the
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Keys/South Florida region. The most recent recapture report was from north of the Dominican Republic and east of Antigua and Barbuda. In February, we reported about a recovery off Venezuela as well as one off DR, but we include the latter here to serve as a reference to the difference in timing of
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movement from the Keys/South Florida region to the northern Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles. The new recovery reported to us last month by a commercial angler out of Antigua and Barbuda was tagged and released by the Wam-Jam fishing team last June off Marathon, Florida. Total time at liberty for Wam-Jam's
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14" fish, which grew to 42", was 284 days, versus Killin' Time II's 18" fish, which grew to 39", in 210 days. The difference in travel time, based on the timing of previous movements to these locations in the Caribbean Sea, points to a shorter circuit taken to DR versus a longer circuit taken to Antigua.
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DRP Scientific Review Published
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Over the past four years, the Beyond Our Shores Foundation has been conducting a comprehensive review of the Dolphinfish Research Program, and the Journal of Fisheries Management and Ecology published the article earlier this month. This review
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details specific scientific results generated by angler participation, extensively catalogs angler participation and milestones, and identifies new studies, strategies, and initiatives to implement as we move forward to advance our understanding of dolphinfish and provide the necessary data to ensure the long-term conservation of this critically important offshore game fish species. Click here to read the article.
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Caribbean Sea Dolphinfish
Sat Tag Deployments
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Our quest to describe the movements of dolphinfish within the Caribbean Sea continued in April with the Lalooli and Liqueo fishing teams based out of Boqueron, Puerto Rico. Those crews deployed a total of five popup satellite archival transmitters on adult male and female dolphinfish ranging in size from 38" to 48" fork-length. This work began nearly a decade ago, and so far, we have successfully deployed 16 satellite tags and have received several conventional
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recoveries. Of the tags recently deployed, one popped up on its scheduled date and another was recaptured at a fish aggregating device southeast of Barahona, Dominican Republic. Next month, we plan to provide more details on these movement records. Click here for more.
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U.S. Atlantic Coast Dolphinfish Management Updates
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Over the past several years, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has been deliberating over changes to the U.S. Atlantic Coast Dolphinfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). Amendment 10, which was the biggest push in new dolphinfish management actions throughout the region in years, was recently approved by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce with management actions taking effect in 2022. Click here to learn more about those changes. For those who have followed this process, the overwhelming majority of public comments received during the Amendment 10 process supported stronger conservation measures which did not come to fruition. As a result, the SAFMC has begun a new regulatory amendment (Amendment 3), and recently their Advisory Panel met to discuss further modifications to the Dolphinfish FMP. The next Council meeting, which will address potential new conservation and management measures for dolphinfish along the U.S. East Coast, will be held in June in Key West, FL. Click here to learn more and to stay engaged and informed about management updates regarding dolphinfish along the U.S. East Coast.
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Support Our 2022 Fisheries Research
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A special thanks to everyone who has contributed to our research program so far this year. With your support, we produced solid results in the first quarter of the year and, to date, we have already shipped out 221
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tagging kits and 3,725 tags! Our goal is to distribute 450 kits and 6,000 tags in 2022 and you can help us acheive this goal. While we have an operational budget, we still need support to help us meet our tagging kit disribution goals, acquire additional satellite tags to deploy on adult dolphinfish and wahoo in 2022, and increase education supplies to meet our growing demand for tagging kits. Our tagging program is at the forefront of educating anglers, advancing discussions and actions surrounding conservation of the species, and gathering additional data to help inform data-driven decision making at state, federal, and international levels. Help the DRP expand in 2022. Click the icons below to shop or donate to support our tagging program.
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