Outdoors

Tags track tarpon deaths after release

By RODNEY PAGE
Published January 16, 2005

If you are planning a tarpon fishing trip this spring, Kathy Guindon would like to tag along.

As a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Guindon is leading a project that will study the mortality rate of tarpon in Tampa Bay after they are released by anglers. The goal is to better understand the area's tarpon fishery and perhaps find ways to keep the popular sport fish thriving.

"This is an economically important fish to our area," Guindon said. "In Texas recently, they have seen a significant drop off in tarpon. We don't want to see that happen here."

Here is the plan: Starting in April when tarpon migrate into the bay, Guindon will shadow a different fisherman three days a week. She will note the fighting time for one tarpon caught, then tag it with an acoustic transmitter (or sonic tag) inserted in the dorsal muscle.

The transmitter gives off a specific sonic signal with Guindon, as well as a crew in a trailing boat, monitoring the fish as soon as it is released and up to six hours afterward. The battery life of the transmitter is three weeks, though Guindon said it is rare to find a fish after four to six hours.

The idea is to track the movement pattern and recovery rate, if the tarpon recovers.

"We're really trying to study their short-term recovery," Guindon said.

This is not the first time Guindon has monitored tarpon. From 2002-04 she tracked ones caught in Boca Grande. That study found that 9.8 percent of the tarpon caught did not survive. The reason in all cases? Shark attack.

"If we lose contact with the tarpon, we can assume some things," Guindon said. "One, the transmitter came out. All of the chips have floats on them, so if that does happen, it usually floats to the top and we can find them.

"Two, the fish is inactive, sleeping. But if that happens for a six-hour period, we have to assume the fish didn't make it. If we have a signal that isn't moving, we can send down an underwater camera and see what happened. That's how we know about the shark attacks."

When Guindon factors in fish with which she loses contact and those she can't track, the death rate rises to 19.5 percent. Guindon said she can assume 90 percent of those are shark attacks, but since it wasn't witnessed, she can not say for sure.

Guindon hopes to tag 30 tarpon during the season. She said the purpose of her research is not to force stricter regulations on tarpon; instead it is a way to research a species that in almost all cases gets released.

"There are programs for fish like snook, redfish, red drum where we can interview people at boat docks and get an idea as to what they are catching," Guindon said. "But since tarpon are catch and release, we can't go to the dock and see people with tarpon in their cooler. This is a way to study the fish more extensively."

If you would like to help Guindon during tarpon season, she can be reached at (727) 896-8626.

[Last modified January 16, 2005, 00:34:19]