Grand Bahamas guides recently met to discuss ways to preserve the area's bonefish population.
BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@MiamiHerald.com
LUCAYA, GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND -- A little more than two years ago, University of Miami bonefish researcher Mike Larkin escorted a small group of avid anglers on a tagging expedition to the bone-studded flats of Grand Bahama Island.
The goal was to learn how far bonefish range and to see if there is any mixing of the stocks between Florida and the more than 700 islands of the Bahamas.
In one week, the handful of anglers caught, tagged and released 71 fish. All were hoping for word that one of their fish had been recaptured.
They had to wait a long time -- until March of this year, when guide Ishmael Makintosh reported catching a 21-inch, tagged bonefish near Water Cay on the north side of Grand Bahama. It turned out the fish had been caught June 23, 2007, in the same area by Islamorada angler Jim Bokor and his brother, Art, when it was only 16 ½ inches long.
That fish is one of few recaptures of bones tagged in the Bahamas since the 1980s.
Other Grand Bahama guides, such as Phil Thomas, said they have caught a handful of tagged fish recently, but let them go without following up.
Some bonefish researchers, such as Aaron Adams -- executive director for the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust based in Key Largo -- hope to change that. Adams and several colleagues met with Bahamian bonefish guides last month in Nassau in a session organized by the island nation's Ministry of Tourism.
``They were all very forward-thinking about preserving their fishery, which was nice to hear,'' Adams said.
Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (tarbone.org) last year launched a large-scale project in the Bahamas, Caribbean, and Central America, working with fisheries managers, guides, resorts, and anglers with the goal of tagging as many as 2,000 bonefish over the next two years. Adams said they need to tag at least that many because the average return rate is low -- about 3 to 5 percent.
In South Florida and the Keys, guides and anglers working with BTT and researchers from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School have tagged more than 7,500 bonefish since 1998, with nearly 300 recaptures, according to Larkin.
From those tag returns, the scientists have learned that bonefish travel extensively between Biscayne Bay and the lower Keys, and that at least two bonefish tagged in South Florida traveled across the predator-infested Straits of Florida to be caught again near Andros Island in the Bahamas.
Far less is known about the species' travel among the islands of the Bahamas and elsewhere, Adams said. Hence the big push to get others concerned with the fishery involved.
``It's important to figure out movement patterns and home ranges so we can put that into management,'' Adams said. ``If it turns out [bonefish] move among the islands, then those guides would have to cooperate in conservation.''
Learning more about bonefish movements, life history and reproduction is vital, scientists said, because the species helps drive a powerful economic engine wherever it occurs. An annual bonefish census in South Florida, for example, shows each fish is worth about $3,500 per year, or $75,000 over its lifetime. Elsewhere, the species has a commensurate value, the scientists said.
BTT petitioned the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently to make bonefish a catch-and-release-only species. But some FWC officials have interpreted the request to mean designating bonefish a prohibited species, such as Goliath grouper. That would mean anglers would not be allowed to bring a bonefish out of the water to photograph it -- a notion that has some Keys guides and tournament organizers upset.
BTT officials now have withdrawn their request and are working with FWC on the wording of a possible rule change to protect bonefish without making them off-limits. The issue is expected to be discussed at the FWC's next meeting in December in Clewiston.
