Conservation

Conservation — No Comments
02
Aug 12

A little conservation message from H20

The guys at H2O Bonefishing in Grand Bahama made a little video about conservation.

[vimeo clip_id=”34931933″]

 

Some good advice there. I tend to fish 16# tippet for bones (and I mostly fish 3x, 8.5 lbs. for trout). Not touching the fish is, as always, the most ideal scenario if you aren’t taking a picture. If you are taking a picture, try to do it in the water.  If you are sitting in the middle of the boat with the fish in your hands, odds are you are not doing it right following best practices.

As they say in the vid… if you aren’t a member of the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, you should.

Conservation — 5 Comments
14
Jul 12

Fish Weight

Let’s all agree not to boga grip our fish… mkay?  It’s bad.  It can injure the fish beyond repair.

So… how big was that fish?  Here is what I know… the distance from my thumb to my pinkie is 9 inches when my fingers are splayed open.  With that knowledge I can get a really solid estimate of the length of any fish.  Then, you can put that length into a fish weight calculator and presto… you have your number, more or less, and the fish didn’t get hung vertically by its lower jaw.

Win. Win.

 

Conservation — 2 Comments
11
Jul 12

The Future of the Keys

The Keys are kind of where it all started.  That is where modern flats fishing really got going, that is where the old characters we’ve all heard about chased silver for the first time.

Now, the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust is spearheading the Florida Keys Initiative.  Here is what they aim to do:

Objectives:

  1. Determine potential causes for declines in bonefish population size, especially in the Upper Keys, and enact measures to correct the problems and restore the population
  2. Work with guides and anglers to identify and address the top threats to Florida Keys flats habitats and bonefish, tarpon, and permit fisheries
  3. Identify and protect key bonefish, tarpon, and permit habitats
  4. Assist  in the formulation of a fishery conservation plan for Florida Keys bonefish, tarpon, and permit fisheries, and their habitats

The keys remain a place I have yet to fish.  Part of me is a bit intimidated by it, part of me wants to make sure if I fly a few thousand miles I catch something. I’ll make it there, some day, and I’m glad organizations like BTT are making sure the Keys continue to inspire.

 

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Conservation / Locations — 4 Comments
21
Jun 12

Savannah Caye to the highest bidder

While coming up with interesting new potential office locations for the little startup I work at, I came across a listing for Savannah Caye.

OK, I was kind of goofing off for a minute or two and I came across a listing for Savannah Caye… as in, Savannah Caye, Belize.

I know this place. I fished there with my friend Shane when we were down at El Pescador in 2010. It has a 16 mile long tarpon flat full of big fish when the migratory tarpon are in.  It’s expansive and fairly productive. I botched my first tarpon there and landed my biggest Jack.

I can’t believe someone can buy it. It makes me wonder if someone really should be able to.

The price is $3.5M and it makes me sad that someone could easily scoop the thing up and build something stupid there.  They could dredge a channel, put in a fake beach and generally screw it up.

Damn.

Anyone want to go in with me to buy this thing?  I could easily gather up $200-$300. We could set is aside from development.  The world has enough fancy resorts, but it has all too few places like Savannah Caye.

Anyone?

Savannah Caye Jack

 

Here in the States Larry Ellison just bought most of Lani… $500-$600M.  Dear god.

Conservation — 1 Comment
08
Jun 12

Time for responsible tournaments

An op-ed from the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust

 

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Calls for Responsible Tournament Angling

Posted on 

 

(Originally published in the Boca Beacon on June 8, 2012)

Responsible Catch and Release is Essential 

The use of catch and release as a conservation tool to ensure healthy recreational fisheries for the future has become standard throughout the world of recreational fisheries. The catch and release ethic is especially apparent in the world-class tarpon fishery ofFlorida, where virtually all tarpon are released. However, catch and release is only a valid conservation tool if it is practiced correctly so that most fish that are released survive. Sadly, the catch and release practices of some in the tarpon fishery are likely decreasing survival of released tarpon and should be curtailed in deference to the ethic of responsible fishing.

Research on catch and release fishing generally shows that the amount and type of handling of fish after being caught and before being released is an important factor in determining the fish’s likelihood of survival after release. In general, fish that are kept in the water and handled minimally do best, while fish that are handled extensively and exposed to air for long periods of time don’t fare well.

Despite the availability of tarpon harvest tags in Florida (each $50 tag allows the harvest of a tarpon), the harvest of tarpon in Florida– whether by individual anglers or by tournaments – has declined to nearly zero in recent years. This is great news for tarpon: tarpon are late to become sexually mature (approximately 8 – 12 years old) and can live a long time (potentially to 80 years), which makes them especially susceptible to harvest. This makes it even more important to use proper catch and release practices when fishing for tarpon – so we can continue to enjoy the best tarpon fishing in the world.

Some mishandling of fish during catch and release is simply a matter of an angler not knowing about proper catch and release handling practices. This is why Bonefish & Tarpon Trust expends significant effort educating anglers about proper catch and release practices. This education effort by BTT and others is paying off with improving catch and release practices by recreational anglers. Unfortunately, in other instances proper handling practices are purposefully not followed, which is a real cause for concern.

Given the overwhelming support for catch and release of tarpon, it is puzzling why anglers would engage in practices that very likely cause high mortality of tarpon after release – the towing of caught tarpon to a weigh station as part of a tournament. Although data on the effects of towing tarpon are scant, the preliminary data that do exist suggest that towed tarpon exhibit much higher levels of physiological stress than do tarpon that are caught and released but not towed. Moreover, since we know that, in general, more handling time equals lower survival for caught and released fish, it makes sense that increasing the handling time by towing and weighing tarpon will likely decrease survival. The responsible and prudent approach is to reduce handling time, and therefore not engage in towing of tarpon prior to release.

The requirement for a weigh-in is especially puzzling given that accurate weights can be obtained by applying measurements of a fish’s length and girth to a formula that is specific to tarpon. This formula, created byUniversityofMiamiscientists based on measurements of hundreds of tarpon, is accurate to within a couple of pounds. Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has this formula available via an iPhone app or water-resistant weight conversion cards.

This letter is not a statement on tournaments, but is instead a call for all tarpon anglers to follow catch and release practices that maximize the survival of tarpon after release. This should be the goal of all recreational tarpon anglers, and especially of entities that host events that rely on a healthy tarpon fishery.

In closing, a tip of the hat to the highly responsible, talented guides of Boca Grande Pass who practice good catch and release, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s ongoing tarpon conservation research, each contributing to a sustainable fishery.

Sincerely,

Aaron Adams, Ph.D.

Director of Operations

 

About Bonefish & Tarpon Trust

Bonefish & Tarpon Trust is a non-profit, science-based conservation organization dedicated to ensuring that bonefish, tarpon, and permit populations, and the fisheries they support, remain healthy and helping to restore the fisheries that have declined. BTT accomplishes this mission by funding conservation-focused research; working with local, national, and regional resource management agencies to improve regulations to protect these fisheries; and funding and conducting education of anglers and the public.  BTT uses scientific findings to advocate for fisheries conservation and works to ensure coastal habitats used by bonefish, tarpon, and permit are protected.  For more information visit the BTT website at www.tarbone.org.

Conservation — 3 Comments
07
Jun 12

Throw the Hook

It happens.  You crank down a little too hard or they run into the mangroves or over a shelf and the fish departs your company, hook still embedded in the fish. So… is that fish a gonner?  Will it be able to feed?  Will that hook fall out on its own like we’ve been told it will?

Good news.  Saw this over at Midcurrent, pointing to a recent study that indicates that yes… that fish is going to be just fine. The hook does not interfere with feeding and they manage to throw the hook themselves, without issue.

Well, that’s good news, I’d say.

Survivor.

Conservation — 4 Comments
05
Jun 12

Puerto Rico – An end to gillnets

It’s just a damn fine idea.  It’s a shinny, glittery, warm and fuzzy idea.  Gillnets are bad, bad news.

From what I’ve read the ban on gill nets in Florida had a direct and sudden impact on the inshore fisheries where redfish were concerned.

So, here’s a petition to ban gill nets in Puerto Rico.  Now… it’s in Spanish, but I’m pretty sure that’s what it is about.

 

Conservation — No Comments
01
Jun 12

BTT has a blog… did you know that?

Well, look what I found!  The Bonefish and Tarpon Trust has a blog!  Who knew? I didn’t.  I went looking on their site to see what was new and I found the blog.  In the blog were a variety of stories.  At least one post lets me know Aaron has good taste, as we both found the same story (I think he found it first, but I didn’t know he had posted it up).  Others, like this story about fish movement, show that this blog might just be a fine place to glean some new info.

The conventional wisdom on bonefish has always been that they are homebodies – those fish you find on your favorite flat on the rising tide are the same fish day after day.  But until recently, this was never tested. The results of what has been learned, and we continue to learn, may surprise you.

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Conservation — 2 Comments
30
May 12

O’io… the gamefish

From the outrage over the bonefish netting a few days ago has picked up some steam.  There’s an on-line petition to ask for bonefish to be moved from the “kill as many as you can catch” category to the “gamefish” category, meaning they would not be in markets any longer.

Hatch Magazine has a story about it…

Opponents of net harvesting of Hawaiian bonefish, known locally as o’io, are attempting to have these fish placed under gamefish status by Hawaii’s governor. Once under gamefish status, killing bonefish would not become illegal, but Hawaiian bonefish would be harvestable only when caught by rod and reel, thus ending the ability of local fisherman to harvest large catches of bonefish via netting.

Read the story here.

Of course, this has been going on for a long time.  I ran a story about the netting bonefish on Kauai a while back. Bonefish have been eaten by the locals and natives for a long, long time.  However, modern tactics (like nylon nets) have the potential to wipe the fishery out.  Seems like it is time to do something about it.

Go ahead… sign it.  Only 296 had done so when I last saw it. We can do better.

Conservation — 5 Comments
23
Apr 12

My own picture taking

I’ve noticed a real trend in my own picture taking when it comes to bonefish.

My first bonefish pics were pretty much the standard bearer for what not to do.  Long air exposure, excessive handling.  Those fish probably didn’t do well.

Yeah... I cringe a bit seeing these pictures.

I didn’t know better and the guide on that particular trip didn’t seem concerned in the slightest. It was kind of a big #fail, even if I didn’t know it yet.

The next trip (same island, different guide) was a big change. I knew better and I was glad to see the guide knew better too.  Captain Perry was my guide and he was very, very vigilant when it came to handling of fish.  The whole day with him we didn’t take a single fish out of the water for pictures.

My last trip to Cuba I found that I was often foregoing the photo-op.  Maybe I’d take a pic of the fish underwater, but often times I would just let them go at the side of the boat and not even snap a single picture. The pics aren’t too glamorous, but I’ve found I’m a bit less concerned about that now.  I do like having a nice photo and I have a few, but I don’t need a hero shot with every fish, or even most of them.

Let those fish swim.

Maybe not the sexiest pic.

Here’s advice from BTT about how to handle a bonefish and how to practice good C&R.

http://youtu.be/SfbGI3DuFrI

 

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