We have come to the end of 2024, which marks seven years of running the Beyond Our Shores Foundation, a 501(c)(3), to continue and expand the Dolphinfish Research Program (DRP).
In 2024, DRP personnel embarked on 27 field outings with 10 different fishing teams in 6 tagging zones between 4 nations; conducted one seminar with the NOAA Fisheries Dolphinfish Management Strategy Evaluation stakeholder group and one with the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Management Commission; deployed 28 satellite tags; submitted a scientific manuscript; and issued 12 DRP monthly newsletters, one fish aggregating device (FAD) newsletter, and 10 short videos. Next year marks the 24th year of conducting research with the public through this tagging program. Your engagement in data collection associated with this tagging program has allowed our team to contribute new scientific information on dolphinfish movements along the U.S. East Coast, in The Bahamas, and the northeast Caribbean Sea as well as on population genetic studies, oceanographic associations, mortality, fishery dynamics, population trends, and growth.
If you value our scientific contributions to those topics and enjoy contributing to our research, please give what you can to help our program continue to engage anglers in research on dolphinfish and offshore fisheries. Donations are fully tax-deductible and can be made by donating to the Beyond Our Shores Foundation via check ( click here), paypal ( click here), stripe ( click here), or through our Facebook Fundraiser campaign ( click here). You can also buy a DRP tee shirt, hat, or tagging kit by clicking here. A very special thanks to those who have already stepped up to support the program for 2025!
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2024 DRP Performance Metrics (through 12/19/24)
- 5,643 tags in 578 kits were distributed to 375 anglers in 8 nations
- Continued youth tagging with the Scouts of America; 64 tagged, 1 recovery
- 1,543 total tags deployed (1,534 dolphinfish, 10 wahoo, 3 tuna), 48 conventional recaptures generated (48 dolphinfish)
- 18 PSATs deployed in Eastern Tropical Pacific, 3 in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, 1 in the Caribbean Sea on Dolphinfish
- 5 PSATs deployed on wahoo in the Mona Passage, Caribbean Sea; 11th since Fall 21'
2024 DRP Highlights by Month
Below are notable highlights generated by anglers participating over the past 12 months of research associated with the Dolphinfish Research Program (DRP).
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Expansion: With funding from the Guy Harvey Foundation, additional sponsors of the Beyond Our Shores Foundation, and in partnership with Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala, our tagging program continued our work off Guatemala in January 2024. We worked with the fleet to deploy 6 satellite tags and a total of 62 dolphinfish in 4.5 days of fishing. Click here to watch the video update.
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March/April 2024
Significant Movements: From late March through April, four satellite tags surfaced in the ETP after remaining with adult dolphinfish for 73 to 158 days. Three of those tags were deployed off Guatemala in partnership with Casa Vieja Lodge and the longest duration movement was deployed off Panama in partnership with Tropic Star Lodge. These tags were sponsored by the Guy Harvey Foundation with work supported by additional sponsors and donors of the Beyond Our Shores Foundation.
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Milestone: In April, the Beyond Our Shores Foundation published the DRP's tag and release database in an online interactive map viewable at dolphintagging.com/map. This map is the culmination of 23 years of conventional and satellite tagging work with anglers in the Western Central Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. Tagging activity has also spread to the Mediterranean and Red Seas, Gulf of Oman, and South China Sea.
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May/June 2024
Significant Satellite Tag Deployment off NC: In May, we deployed our 10th satellite tag in the South Atlantic Bight and the first off of North Carolina. While fishing aboard Dr. Iyke Blakemore's vessel, Marlin Gull, with Captain Kenny Midgett and mates Mark Schultz, Chris Whitley, Bryant Stokes, and Greg Jenkins, we deployed a Wildlife Computer's mark and report satellite tag on a healthy 36" female. This satellite tag was sponsored by Grady-White Boats.
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Milestone: Killin' Time II Surpassed 5K Tagged!
Captain Don Gates along with two of his closest fishing aficionados, Allen Lewis and Darryl Williams, tagged and released their 5,000th dolphin in June! Captain Gates, Lewis, and Williams have been fishing the Keys for the past 35 years, and they began tagging for our program in 2002. Click here to watch a video we published about this effort.
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July/August 2024
Significant Movements: A total of 9 dolphinfish tagged and released in Florida (FL) waters between May and July were recaptured in North Carolina (NC) waters between June and September. The range of size of the fish tagged was 19" to 22" fork-length (FL) (Average = 19.96" FL); the range of size of fish recaptured with reported sizes (n=7) was 21" to 30" FL (average = 24.5" FL). These movements, when combined with the movements below, represent the highest number of recaptures in NC waters in one calendar year over our 23-year study.
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Significant Movements: Beginning in August, a series of movements in the Mid-Atlantic Bight occured that highlighted a southerly movement component toward NC from late summer through fall. A fish tagged off Rhode Island (RI) on August 23rd was recaptured off NC on October 4th. On September 17th, a satellite tag deployed on a 34" bull off RI (more on that below) carried the tag to just west of Wilmington Canyon, Maryland, in 20 days. Lastly, a fish tagged and released in NC waters on October 3rd was recaptured the next day 30 miles to the southeast.
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September/October 2024
Significant Satellite Tag Deployment off RI: Our program's first satellite tag deployment on a dolphinfish off Rhode Island occurred on September 17th, 2024, while fishing aboard Captain Geof Lewis's vessel Calm Chaos with his son Richard Lewis. The 34" bull was caught by Shaun Reale of Phenom Yachts and transferred from his vessel to Calm Chaos for the tag to be fit to the fish. This PSAT deployment was the first in association with our program's multi-year tracking grant with the Caribbean Fishery Management Council.
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Wahoo Satellite Tag Movements: In the fall of 2021, our tagging program began an initiative off of Puerto Rico to begin to describe the movements of wahoo. On October 12th and 13th, 2024, 5 more PSATs were deployed on wahoo ranging in size from 46"-49" fork-length. With these deployments, a preliminary glimpse into the movements of wahoo in the Mona Passage has been established. These fish were tagged and released working aboard Captain Efrain 'Yunyi' Gonzalez's vessel Liqueo, with mates Jesus 'Milo' Duran and Carlos Bonet.
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November/December 2024
Dolphinfish Satellite Tag Deployments: 12 PSATs deployed on dolphinfish (39" to 51") and 34 total (9" to 51") tagged with conventional tags off TSL. Click here to read more.
Made possible by: Tropic Star Lodge, the Guy Harvey Foundation, and Guy Harvey Research Institute.
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PR Satellite Tagging Update: On December 16th, 2024, fishing with Caribbean Fishing Academy and Captain Daryl Wiley, we deployed our 12th satellite tag on a dolphinfish off the north coast of Puerto Rico. A mrPAT tag was deployed on a 34" female. This PSAT deployment marks the fourth in association with our program's multi-year tracking grant with the Caribbean Fishery Management Council.
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Support the DRP in 2025
We ask you to contribute what you can today to support the Dolphinfish Research Program in 2025. This year was a great one for our tagging program thanks to our loyal sponsors, supporters, and participants. As a leader in public engagement in research and conservation of dolphin, your donation will advance our expanding organization by helping to purchase more tags to distribute to anglers, bolster our education programs and materials, and improve fisheries data collection among recreational, for-hire, and small-scale commercial fishermen. Help the DRP continue documenting movement and population trends in our oceans in 2025 by supporting us today. There are three ways to support our effort. You can make a tax-deductible donation to the Beyond Our Shores Foundation (click here to donate), donate via our Facebook Fundraising Campaign (click here to donate), or purchase a kit, shirt, or hat in our online shop (click here to shop). The Beyond Our Shores Foundation, a 501(c)(3), was formed in 2017 to help support the growth of the DRP, and since then, we have distributed 37,035 tags around the world to 2,209 anglers and logged over 13,890 tag deployments and 283 new conventional dolphin movements.
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Request Your Kit for 2025
From now until the end of 2025, our goal is to distribute tagging kits to 300 individual anglers. If you are new to the program or need more tags, please request your kit today. Click here to request a kit. Interested in purchasing your kit to help support the program? Please click here.
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| | 2024 Year-End Award Sponsors
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| | 2024 Federal and State Grant Partners
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| | 2024 ETP Research Partnerships
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