Just under two decades ago, during a mid-April fishing trip aboard Summergirl off South Carolina, Don Hammond tagged the first dolphin for this tagging program. Earlier this month, the Wam-Jam Fishing Team, fishing out of Marathon, Florida, tagged the 30,000th dolphin! While surpassing our 30,000th tagged dolphin is not a scientific goal of the program, it is symbolic of our program's history and dedication to distribute tags and tagging kits, recruit and engage anglers, and log the data to determine the movements and life history traits of this species throughout the Western Central Atlantic and Eastern Tropical Pacific Oceans. Given the program's steady growth in participation, which we estimate has grown to 6,000 anglers throughout our history, the level of data collection has subsequently grown, and as a result, we have
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learned a tremendous amount about this species' annual, semi-annual, and seasonal movements by tagging region (see table above). As with most scientific studies, there remains much work to be done; for our program, the two major locations for which we have very limited data are the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB) and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Recently, two tagged dolphin were reported in the MAB (see article below) and thankfully, this year, we have had tagging participation within both regions. With a steady level of participation by anglers in the MAB and
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GOM, we hope that over the course of the next several years, as we push toward 40,000 tagged dolphin, a significant proportion of those fish come from those zones. When combined with our satellite tag deployment efforts, we can effectively fill in knowledge gaps that exist for this species which can aid in improving species management and conservation. To learn more about our effort in the MAB, visit beyondourshores.org/mab, or to help this effort wherever you fish and reside, click here to request tags. A special thanks goes out to the thousands of anglers and vessels that have participated as well as the individuals, fishing industry companies, and organizations that have supported our work to achieve at this significant milestone in our history!
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| Summer 2021 Dolphin Recaptures
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Since our July newsletter, we have received six tag recoveries ranging from the Keys to the offshore canyons in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (see table below). Captains Russel Yates and Robert Clarke are the latest MAB
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anglers to have recaptured a tagged dolphin that were originally released in the Florida Keys. These are rare recoveries, as evidenced by the fact that they represent the 21st and 22nd movements logged from the Keys to the MAB over the past two decades. When compared to past movements, these fish made the swim up the U.S. East Coast faster than previous events (40.5 days versus 57.9 days). The MAB recoveries were generated by Captain Ed Forrest and Captain Bryan Gilmore fishing off the Lower Florida Keys. In addition to the exciting MAB recoveries this past month, we received a recovery by Captain Michael Mintz fishing aboard Chicama off Bimini, Bahamas, as well as by Pelagic Gear pro angler Michelle Dalton (pictured below) fishing with Captain Mark Didario off Boynton Beach, FL. These recoveries were generated through the tagging efforts of Captains Chase Benedict and Gilmore, both
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Michelle Dalton recaptured a tagged dolphin while fishing aboard her vessel Bombchelle on August 8th. Congrats Michelle and thanks for the report!
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of whom represent staff with the Scouts of America based out of Summerland Key, Florida. In a remarkable effort this year, the Scouts tagged their seasonal high (198 dolphin ranging from 13.5" to 27" fork-length) and had four recoveries! Great work Scouts! All tagging captains will receive a Guy Harvey mini-print for their efforts and captains reporting recoveries will receive AFTCO performance fishing shirts. While we realize most anglers that participate in our program do so to help gather information on this amazing species and not to win awards, we truly appreciate our sponsors' support for providing
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additional incentives for tagging and reporting recoveries. We are halfway through the year and poised to have record participation at year's end. So far we have received tagging reports from 94 vessels. One of the main objectives of our tagging program is to get as many anglers involved by distributing tags. We are happy to report that we achieved our ambitious goal set forth last December, which was to distribute 400 kits in 2021. To date, we have distributed 4,208 tags in 421 tag kits to anglers throughout the region! Send some back young. Request tags here.
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| Support our Tagging Program
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Over the past few years, we have built an inventory of tagging program products that are available for purchase to help support our tagging program. We have a variety of styles and options in stock. Your purchase supports our tagging program to acquire more tags and tagging kit supplies, manage tagging kit distribution, and run overall program operations. Click here to shop and to support our work.
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In 2017, we formed the Beyond Our Shores Foundation (BOSF), a 501(c)(3), to support and expand the DRP. Given the rise in tagging kit demand and expansion of our tagging program, we recently started a DRP investment fund. This fund will grow monies to be used for offshore fisheries research to ultimately benefit the fishing community. We are committed to distribute a percentage of the fund annually to further the goals of our tagging program. In the short-term, the immediate use will be to meet the demand in tagging kit supplies; in the long-term, we hope to use the fund to acquire satellite tags, provide scholarships to young fisheries scientists, and award grants to support research on dolphinfish, wahoo, and fish aggregating device fisheries. This is one strategy that we have developed as we begin to head into the charitable giving season and raise funds for next year's effort. To make a contribution today to help grow this fund just notify us that you would like your contribution to go toward the DRP Investment fund. You can also make a general donation today to help advance the expansion of the DRP. Click here to donate and thank you for your support.
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