Conservation

The Bimini Ferry, Not Coming to a Port Near You

Resorts World Bimini wanted to bring rapid ferry service to Bimini to bring allllll sorts of flashy, cash-dripping Americans over to their resort.

Locals said “It isn’t going to work.”

Environmentalists said “It isn’t going to work.”

The Bahamian Administration said “I can’t hear you over the sound of all this money.”

Guess what? Resorts World Bimini got their ferry and their ferry terminal (at some high environmental costs).

And guess what happened next! Yup… the ferry has failed and the service has stopped.

The Bahamian people appear to be on the hook for this bit of douchbaggery.

Protect Bay Bones!

From BTT. If you fish Florida, please take the survey!

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED: Project Bay Bones Survey

Do you fish for bonefish in south Florida? If you do, then we need your help. Bonefish and Tarpon Trust has partnered with researchers at Florida International University to create PROJECT BAY BONES to investigate changes in South Florida waters and how these changes may affect the quality of bonefishing. We need your help to fill in critical knowledge gaps on how bonefishing has changed in south Florida over the years. In the absence of scientific data on the health of bonefish populations, angler knowledge is an invaluable source of information. Thus, public participation is vital to the conservation of bonefish and to ensuring high quality fishing in the future!

You can help us by filling in a 10-15 minute survey and telling us about your fishing experiences. This survey is different than previous surveys on the bonefish fishery because it is tied into a larger study that is examining environmental changes in South Florida over time. Bringing all of these data sets together should help us better understand bonefish.

Click here to take the survey

If the link above does not work, please copy and paste the following URL into your browser: https://fiu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1GplxUPVHqt5xtz

We are looking for bonefish anglers of all levels and years of experience, including fishing guides. Your participation in this study is greatly appreciated and we thank you in advance!

For further information or if you have any questions, please contact fishscience@fiu.edu

Conservation — 1 Comment
22
Apr 15

Saving the Oceans

Since it is Earthday and all… a video about saving the oceans, those little places that are special and far away and most folks don’t think of too much. Except us, anglers, we think about them all the time.

Conservation / Locations — No Comments
24
Mar 15

Parks for the Bahamas

There is a push to get some new parks created in the Bahamas, specifically on Grand Bahama.

National Parks are created when a society decides it wants to protect its natural heritage. We’ve been very successful at this and our National Parks are crown jewels, special places.

I’m glad to see the Bahamas embracing what is special about their islands. I’m guessing that these parks would not ban bonefishing, as some of these parks are in the best stuff, especially the East End proposed park.

The site has videos you can watch with a bit more information about each proposed park. The East End park even has Flip catching a bonefish.

PS… If you’ve fished the East End, you’ve almost certainly been by the spot in the above picture. When I was last there I actually caught one or two bonefish right on this flat.

Conservation — 1 Comment
23
Feb 15

A victory for Belize and for us

This is what a victory looks like:

The Government of Belize through the Cabinet has approved the proposed expansion of Hol Chan Marine Reserve. The decision taken to approve the expansion of the reserve was made on February 17th following the completion of minor adjustments made to the original draft proposal. The decision brings the project one step closer to fruition following years of lobbying by marine environmentalists on Ambergris Caye.

In this day and age of zero-sum politics where your victory is my loss, it is unusual to see something where everyone wins. The expansion of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve is the rare win-win. Maybe there are some developers out there who lose, but I really don’t mind that, not one bit.

Expanding protections around Ambergris is fantastic. It is a special place and deserves not to be exploited to death and then left to rot.

The people of Belize win by ensuring that their natural heritage stands a better shot at survival, of thriving. With that natural gift come the tourists and the jobs and livelihoods. And we, we the tourists, the anglers, we get a better shot at that grand slam and the peace and quiet and serenity that comes from the flats when it is just you, your guide and the wind.

Fantastic and congratulations to Belize!

Belize Bonefish

Conservation / Locations — 3 Comments
02
Dec 14

Queen Conch in the Bahamas in Danger

Cracked

If you’ve been down to Florida in the past many years and enjoyed some Conch Fritters, you’ve likely been enjoying Queen Conch from the Bahamas (or some other Caribbean nation). The Conch in Florida are off limits since the fishery collapsed in the 80’s.

The Bahamas seems a world apart from the massive population of Florida. There are, after all, only about 320,000, as compared to 19,500,000 over in Florida. It seems hard to imagine the conch fishery in the Bahamas could face a similar fate as that suffered by Florida. The Bahamas, in places, seems like endless habitat for conch (and bonefish).

Well… where is there is demand there is money and where there is money, people will chase it down, bulldozing anything in their way, even their own futures. It turns out there are some real concerns about the fate of Conch in the Bahamas.

The group Community Conch is hoping to address this issue.

Conservation — 9 Comments
07
Oct 14

What you won’t enjoy in the Keys

You like conch fritters? Me too.

You know what you won’t have in the Keys? Conch fritters from conch caught in the Keys. Simply put, they’ve been over-fished to the brink of destruction and are now illegal to harvest in Florida waters.

I’m not from Florida… far from it. But it seems like things need to change if Florida is going to continue producing for all those tourists who come down to play. If you keep everything you catch, regardless of whether you plan on eating it or not, there will simply be fewer of those fish around the next time you head out on that charter boat.

It is pictures like this that have me scratching my head. You think they are going to eat all those smaller fish? I doubt it. If not… why kill them? Is gaffing the only way these guys know how to land a fish?

When I see that 84% of lobsters in the Keys are caught in their first year of life (they can live to be 20), I have to wonder how the fishery could possibly thrive under such pressure. Visually, it is striking to see all those lobster traps set out. Hundreds upon hundreds of them, one after another after another. You just look at it all and have to think “How is this sustainable?”

There seem to be PLENTY of mullet around and the big, migratory tarpon will come to eat the mullet, so maybe the tarpon won’t be impacted by the general catch & kill mentality. You have to think you can’t screw with things too much, though, right?

Am I wrong? Can we keep this up?

Bison skulls from around the time when we nearly killed off all the Bison.

Conservation — 4 Comments
25
Nov 13

Bonefish Awesomeness

Well. This is something you don’t see every day (or ever lifetime).

Go over to the Moldy Chum to see the details. This is a spawning aggregation. We knew this happened, but had never actually caught it on tape. Awesome site.

Conservation / Locations — 1 Comment
05
Sep 13

C&R in Florida

Did you miss it? On September 1st bonefish and tarpon were officially designated as Catch & Release species in Florida.

For bones…

The bonefish tournament exemption permit is eliminated. This exemption allows tournament anglers with the proper permit to temporarily possess bonefish for transport to a tournament scale.

Ruling.

Well done Florida.

For Tarpon, it is a little more involved. A person can keep on tarpon when pursuing a world record, but they need a permit and the permit is only valid for a short period of time.

All harvest of tarpon will be eliminated, with the exception of the harvest or possession of a single tarpon when in pursuit of an International Game Fish Association record and in conjunction with a tarpon tag.

Hook and line only, and the rules extend to Federal waters. Ruling indeed.

Derek’s bone from his Grand SLam. A protected bonefish. Good job FL.

Conservation — 1 Comment
05
Jul 13

Save everything

Save Bristol Bay.

Save the Tarpon.

Save the Bluefin Tuna.

Save the Grouper.

Save the Sharks.

It is easy to get “Save-the” fatigue. Everywhere there are threats. Everywhere there is someone crying out for help to save something they love or need or value.

And it is all true. It is all under threat. Everywhere, it seems.

A friend mentions having bluefin tuna at a sushi place. A friend says he loves bbq’ing salmon. Shark is on the menu.

It is hard to care about all this stuff and to walk through life without burning bridges and fine dining establishments. I’m not sure what the answer is, really. This isn’t a post about answers. I’m just wondering if A) it’s always been like this. B) it’s getting worse. C) where it all ends.

TED… hope you have some answers.

Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).

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