On average, our tagging program logs 36 new dolphinfish movements annually, with the majority of those reported from anglers along the U.S. East Coast. With an overall recovery rate of 2.4%, recaptures are frequent, but those reported from international waters seldom occur. Overall, 3.1% of our 771 recaptures logged over the past two decades were for fish recovered in the high seas, central Atlantic, or Caribbean Sea. But, recently, a father and son fishing duo, Captain Todd Lewis
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and his son, Parker Lewis, beat the odds and had one of their tagged dolphinfish recaptured by Mr. Carlos Rosales in Venezuela! This event becomes our 24th international recovery in our database. The fish was tagged and released by Captain Lewis and his son a mile offshore in 100' of water off Lighthouse Point, South Florida, on June 25th, 2021. Mr. Rosales recovered the fish on July 4th, 2022, 374 days after the father/son duo released the 16" fish. While we were not able to get an accurate size from Mr. Rosales, given our database on growth, we estimate the fish was up to 53" fork-length or 54 pounds when recovered given the time at large. This is our third recovery for dolphinfish tagged and released along the U.S. East Coast that has been reported in Venezuela. The previous two recoveries occurred in February and all point to the connection of U.S. East Coast dolphinfish with the southern Caribbean Sea, a region that has large recreational and commercial fisheries for the species. In fact, when considering the 34 jurisdictions within the Western Central Atlantic Ocean, Venezuela's commercial fishery has been the highest for commercial landings since 2010, and among the top fisheries with data dating back to the late 90s.
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Scouts of America Near the 400 Tagged Club!
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Our tagging program has worked to engage the Scouts of America in dolphin tagging at Sea Base and the Brinton Environmental Center on Summerland Key, Florida, since 2018. For those who have never heard of Sea Base, it is a unique Scouting program that offers aquatics programs found nowhere else and serves around 16,000 participants annually. During the summer over the past 5 years, Scouts attending summer programs at Sea Base have managed to tag and release nearly 400 dolphin! Of those releases, 8 fish have been recovered. Given the impact the Scouts are making on our tagging program, we have created a dedicated tagging page to allow our participants to follow the Scouts' tagging activity. You can check out that page at dolphintagging.com/scouts. We would like to give a shout out to Costa Sunglasses, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, AFTCO, and Star Rods for providing top notch gear that we have awarded to the top Scout captains over the past several years!
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Introducing Mr. Chris Whitley as a New Board Member
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We are thrilled to announce the addition of Mr. Chris Whitley as a board member for the Beyond Our Shores Foundation, the managing nonprofit for the Dolphinfish Research Program. Mr. Whitley has been engaged in our tagging program since 2010 and we are excited to formalize his participation in our program as a board member. Mr. Whitley has spent the past 25 years fishing the southeast coast of Florida as well as in the USVIs, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Dominican Republic. Amazingly, he was mate when the all-tackle World Record King Mackerel at 93 lb was set on April 18, 1999, in San Juan, Puerto Rico (picture above). Mr. Whitley currently resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Welcome aboard, Mr. Whitley! Click here to view our board members.
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Limited Time Offer! Buy a DRP Short Sleeve Tee Shirt and Get One Free!
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We would like to thank everyone who purchased program products last month. Our special offer was a success in helping our program raise some funds and we would like to offer another special this month. From today, August 31st, until Saturday, September, 3rd, anyone who purchases a DRP short-sleeve program tee shirt online will get a second free. This is an excellent way to help support and promote conservation of your offshore fishing passion by supporting our tagging program. The logo featured on our DRP short-sleeve tee shirts was designed by Dr. Guy Harvey and the design really pops on these shirts. Help us out. Click the image above or this link to purchase a short-sleeve shirt.
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Through August 28th, 2022, 104 vessels have submitted dolphinfish tagging reports. This represents above average annual vessel participation, but releases up to this point in the year are the third lowest in our two-decade history. As a result, the number of recoveries also ranks low, but we've had four international recaptures in Venezuela, Antigua, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. We also just received a tag wash up report along the southwest coast of the United Kingdom, which doesn't represent a true recapture but does raise the question of whether in the future we will observe a trans-Atlantic movement for this species. Another positive aspect of this year's tagging activity is we have had consistent tagging participation in several new international locations including the United Arab Emirates, Aruba, Ecuador, Mexico, and the Gulf of Mexico. A special thanks to everyone that has participated so far this year!
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Support the Beyond Our Shores Foundation
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We published our 2021 990-EZ which documents, in detail, our 501(c)(3)'s financial records for public examination. Over the past four years, we have worked hard to expand the Dolphinfish Research Program as well as fisheries research in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean, publish technical and non-technical literature, initiate new fisheries studies, and build program operations (see the 990-EZ). With your support, we have achieved impressive results, but we need additional support to finish off 2022 strong. As we stand at the end of the 2nd quarter in 2022, we have already shipped
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out 442 tagging kits and 5,418 tags, deployed 7 satellite tags, and logged more than 1,000 releases plus 20 recaptures. We are on track to obtain our goal to distribute 450 kits and 6,000 tags in 2022, and you can help us achieve this goal. Help the DRP expand in 2022. Click the icons below to support our tagging program and fisheries research.
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