When COVID-19 boating restrictions were lifted in the Cayman Islands at the end of June, we can only imagine how quickly Dr. Guy Harvey and his daughter, Jessica Harvey, set up an outing to get offshore. As luck would have it, one of the two dolphin they tagged north of Grand Cayman during one of their first offshore trips of the summer, on July 1st, would go on to provide direct evidence of the time it takes a dolphin to swim from Grand Cayman to Key Largo, FL; 38 days. Guy and Jess measured the fish to be 24" in fork length, and Captain Lazaro Rangel measured 28" in fork length when he and his family recaptured the fish aboard Lady C on birds
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off Key Largo, FL. A total growth of 4" equates to a daily rate of .105"/day, which is slightly slower than the program's overall average of .12"/day. The movement, when compared to surface drifter tracks (left) over the last three years
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from June to August, is consistent with the speed of the only observed drifter traversing the area in 2020. While we do not have a track of exactly where this fish swam, given the predominate west-northwest tendency for surface drifters and overall flow of surface currents, this recapture event highlights another U.S. Atlantic coast dolphin supply route via the western Caribbean Sea and Loop Current. Click here to read more about this new connection between the western Caribbean Sea and the U.S. East Coast as well as an overview on Caribbean Sea dolphinfish movements (image below).
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2020 MAB Dolphin Tagging Initiative Underway
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Now that the DRP is headquartered in Newport, Rhode Island, over the next several years, we are focused on involving more captains and crews in data collection on dolphin in this region. To incentivize this effort, this year we created an additional awards program for anglers participating in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. This awards program was made possible by AFTCO, Star Rods, Shimano Reels, and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation. To date, eight vessels have submitted official tag deployment reports in the MAB: Adios Dos, Blue Line Charters, Easton Pool, Fortuna, Frayed Knot, Kraken, Good Company, and Perfect Circle. A special thanks to each of these vessel owners, captains and crews for deploying tags already this season. To learn more about the specific MAB award categories and how to get tags, visit beyondourshores.org/mab or click the flyer above.
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Ahead of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council's September Dolphin-Wahoo Advisory Board Meeting, the Council requested an update of research conducted to date from the Dolphinfish Research Program (DRP). Join us today as we provide a comprehensive update of research associated with our international tagging program. Click here to register.
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Support Our Tagging Program
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Help support the Dolphinfish Research Program (DRP) by pre-ordering our new performance fishing shirt that highlights our research effort based out of Tropic Star Lodge in southwest Panama. If you are interested in pre-ordering our new DRP performance fishing shirt please email me at wess@beyondourshores.org. Proceeds from your purchase helps fund our tagging program and research of one of the ocean's most iconic offshore game fish species. Click here or below to support us.
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Since the Beyond Our Shores Foundation, a 501(c)(3), formed three years ago, we have distributed 13,747 tags around the world and logged over 5,619 new tag deployments and 141 new dolphin movements. Help us continue to expand the Dolphinfish Research Program by donating today. Click here to donate.
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