Then and Now
Bonefish Conservation: A Top Priority for Bonefish & Tarpon Trust
The Beginning of Bonefish and Tarpon Trust
Old-timers say bonefishing in the Florida Keys was once similar to that of nearby Grand Bahama Island. But by the 1990s, the bonefish population in the Florida Keys had dropped by more than 80% compared to thirty or forty years ago. In 1998, a group of anglers, guides, and scientists in the Florida Keys collectively realized they had a problem. They had all fished in the Keys as well as The Bahamas and elsewhere, and realized that the Keys fishery was declining. They also saw that in some faraway locations the bonefish fishery was doing well, but in others the fishery was in decline similar to the Florida Keys. With a common vision of reviving the declining fisheries and conserving the fisheries that remained healthy, this group formed Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited (now Bonefish & Tarpon Trust).
The first step was to figure out what was known about bonefish (and tarpon and permit) biology, so that they could then work with government agencies to formulate a conservation and management plan. But BTT’s founders quickly realized they had a problem – although bonefish, tarpon, and permit supported important recreational fisheries in Florida and throughout the Caribbean, very little was known about these species’ biology. Information as simple as spawning locations, which habitats were most important, and the effects of catch and release fishing was unknown.
This is where BTT’s vision and credibility were born. Rather than advocate for fisheries conservation based entirely on a desire for more healthy fisheries, BTT’s founders made the decision that obtaining information on bonefish and tarpon biology one of the main goals of the new organization. Although this seems pretty straightforward, this proactive approach to fisheries conservation – let’s figure out the biology so we can manage for conservation of the fisheries – is not all that common, and shows the foresight of BTT’s founders. With their focus on the fish, BTT was set up to maximize funds raised from memberships and donations to support research so that appropriate conservation and management can be enacted to ensure the fisheries continue into the future.
From the beginning, BTT was also dedicated to education. Since its inception, BTT has supported many graduate students who conducted research on bonefish and tarpon. Research institutions include University of Miami, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida International University, Carleton University (Canada), University of Illinois, and University of Minnesota. Part of BTT’s strategy is collaboration, so we interact with some of the best researchers in the world.
Ten Years Later
Ten years later, in 2008, a lot of progress has been made, and BTT is proud that it has spent well over $1 million on bonefish, tarpon, and permit research since 1998. Since bonefish, tarpon, and permit never supported commercial fisheries, very few research dollars were committed to these species until BTT was founded. So although BTT is proud of the funding it has provided, it is very small in comparison to the tens of millions of dollars spent on commercially important species in the same time period. But since bonefish, tarpon, and permit are large contributors to a recreational fisheries economy that in Florida alone is worth more than $8 billion per year, BTT is hopeful that additional research funding will soon be coming from government fisheries agencies in the United States and throughout the Caribbean.
Bonefish Research
We are learning more about bonefish every day. In many ways it’s like being a kid in a candy store where everything is new and great. But, just like being that kid who only has a dollar to spend, we have to make choices about where we focus our research efforts. Here is a sampling of some of those research efforts and what we’ve learned.
Which species of bonefish are you catching?
Until the late 1990s, it was thought that the Caribbean-Western Atlantic population of bonefish targeted by anglers was one species – Albula vulpes. However, in 2001, it was determined that another species of bonefish occurred in shallow waters of the Caribbean-Western Atlantic. This species (officially identified as Albula species B, popularly referred to as Albula garcia), has thus far been identified only by genetic testing. And as if that wasn’t enough, in late 2008, BTT-supported scientists, using fin clips from bonefish caught by recreational anglers, discovered a third species of bonefish on the flats of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, these three species appear to be identical in physical appearance (they do seem to have different numbers of vertebrae, but that’s not much help unless you kill the fish and dissect it), so we have to rely on genetics to tell us which species is/are being caught by recreational anglers, so we know which species is/area most important to the recreational fishery.
To get the full picture on which species of bonefish occur where, we have been collaborating with the genetics lab of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. BTT scientists and recreational anglers have been collecting small pieces of fin tissue from bonefish, and sending this to the genetics lab. The geneticist working on this project (Liz Wallace) analyzes the fin tissue to identify the species. We have thus far collected fin clips from locations in the Florida Keys, Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Belize, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Turks and Caicos, and Cuba. So far, most (>90%) of the bonefish tested have been identified as Albula vulpes. But the other two species have also been caught. Amazingly, on three occasions more than one species was caught by the same angler on the same flat, in one case from the same school of fish! So although we have fin tissue collections from numerous locations, we don’t yet have enough samples to really understand the fisheries. This is one area that we focused on during our week in Grand Bahama.
Why should we care that there are multiple species in the fishery? We have to know what to manage in order to protect the fishery. Our search for juvenile bonefish provides an example. Sampling beaches of the Florida Keys and Belize, we’ve captured thousands of juvenile bonefish 1” – 4” long. But with genetics we determined that more than 95% of the juveniles were Albula species B, which means we still don’t know where juvenile Albula vulpes (which appears to dominate the fishery) live. If we had put our heads in the sand and ignored the fact that there were multiple species of bonefish in coastal waters, we would have concluded, incorrectly, that we identified juvenile bonefish habitats and then worked to protect them. Meanwhile, the actual juvenile habitats of Albula vulpes would go unprotected.
How far do bonefish travel?
BTT has been working with scientists at University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmopsheric Science (www.bonefishresearch.com) to get a better idea of bonefish movement patterns. Working with volunteer anglers and guides, they have put external tags in bonefish throughout the Florida Keys. Contrary to the conventional wisdom when they started their research years ago, they have determined that bonefish are capable of moving considerable distances. For example, bonefish tagged in the upper Florida Keys have been recaptured in the lower Keys. And, most amazing, two bonefish tagged in the upper Florida Keys were recaptured on Andros Island, The Bahamas! These fish had not only traveled a considerable distance, they had crossed the Gulf Stream and traversed water thousands of feet deep!
In ongoing BTT-supported research being conducted on North Andros, The Bahamas, by scientists at Florida International University, bonefish tagged with sonic tags (similar to radio tags) moved nearly 100 miles in the space of just a few weeks.
And at Turneffe Atoll, Belize, where the guides’ conventional wisdom is that bonefish schools that frequent specific locations are always the same fish, tagging showed differently. Although bonefish are often found in the same locations, at least some of the individual bonefish move. One of the many bonefish we tagged at a single location were sighted by guide seven miles away just two weeks later, and second was captured by an angler approximately 10 miles away a few months later.
These results beg the questions: what is the home range of a bonefish?; to what extent do bonefish populations in different locations interact?; and how large of an area has to be included for bonefish management plans? All of these questions must be answered if we are to have effective conservation and management plans for bonefish.
Best practices for bonefish catch and release
It’s important to highlight that BTT is not only about science and conservation. BTT is also very dedicated to angler education – better anglers make better conservationists, and thus better stewards of coastal environments and advocates for the fisheries. So when BTT supports research, we don’t just expect a scientific report, we make sure that the scientific information is put toward angler education. A recent example is the work on bonefish catch and release.
The effects of catch and release fishing can vary greatly among fish species. Some species handle catch and release very well and show very low post-release mortality, whereas other species don’t fare so well. In some cases, how anglers treat fish during release can also influence fish survival. Since there was only limited knowledge of the effects of catch and release fishing on bonefish, and the fishery is primarily catch and release, this was rated a high research priority. Building upon some previous research, scientists were funded by BTT to conduct research on the effects of catch and release fishing on bonefish. Once the research was complete, BTT created and distributed an educational brochure ‘Best Practices for Bonefish Catch and Release’ for anglers. With the information contained in the brochure, anglers have been able to modify their fighting and handling of bonefish to give even better chances for bonefish survival after release (which, in the absence of predators, is >95%).
Where do bonefish spawn?
Believe it or not, we don’t yet know the answer to that question. Based on observations of guides, anglers and scientists, we’re pretty sure they don’t spawn on the flats. Here is what we do know: bonefish spawn by ‘broadcast spawning’ – males and females eject sperm and eggs into the open water, where fertilization occurs, and the eggs hatch; the larvae that hatch from the eggs look nothing like a bonefish – they’re clear and eel-like – and float in the open ocean for weeks (56 days, on average). If groups of bonefish spawned on the flats, we’d have many reports of spawning. And although guides, anglers and scientists have seen groups of bonefish on the flats acting strangely, there have not yet been reports of spawning. Based on conversations with guides, previous research, and BTT-supported research now being conducted on Eleuthera, The Bahamas, at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, we’re pretty certain that bonefish spawn in deep water (more than 50’ deep) near the full and new moons between November and April.
Why should we care where bonefish spawn? One example of why comes from the Pacific, where locals know where bonefish gather in large schools before they move offshore to spawn, and net these schools of fish. In these locations, the bonefish populations have declined. It now appears that similar activities may be occurring in some locations in the Caribbean. These areas need to be protected to prevent harvesting of the spawning bonefish to prevent population declines. Bonefish spawning locations also need to be known so they can be protected from future development. For example, BTT would oppose the construction of a sewage outfall or power plant water intake at a bonefish spawning location.
We need to be proactive
Many will say that they don’t see a problem with bonefish fisheries, so they see no reason to be concerned. Those who started BTT in 1998 have seen reason to be concerned, and their concern stems from personal experience. But perhaps most disconcerting is that bonefish populations appear to have difficulty recovering from overfishing, so if we aren’t proactive then we’re too late. St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, provides a real-world example. In the 1960s and into the 1970s, fishing for bonefish on St. Croix was fantastic. None other than Ted Williams, the great baseball player and bonefish angler, said so. He fished St. Croix more than once, and said that was the best bonefish fishing he had experienced. Then two things happened – habitat loss and overfishing. First, a large mangrove lagoon on the island’s south coast was filled in to build an oil refinery. Then, fishermen began using large gillnets along shorelines, this effort peaking in the early 1980s. Although they weren’t necessarily targeting bonefish, the net wiped out school after school of bonefish, and destroyed the fishery. Although gillnetting has largely stopped on St. Croix, the bonefish populations have not returned. Now, there are perhaps two or three small locations on the islands where a persistent angler might find a small bonefish or two. More than twenty years later, it’s a far cry from some of the best bonefish fishing around.
BTT has come a long way since its beginning in 1998, thanks in no small part to the Founders, Board members, scientists, guides, and members who continue to support BTT's mission. We still have a way to go to get the answers we need for effective conservation, but we've made great strides. Help BTT complete its mission, become a member.