1 00:00:07,607 --> 00:00:15,248 They are vast expanses of serene, crystal-clear waters, as far as the eye can see. 2 00:00:15,348 --> 00:00:20,787 It is an absolutely unique place. It s usually less than six feet of water that is a matrix 3 00:00:20,887 --> 00:00:27,327 of sand, seagrass, little corals and sponges that offers good foraging grounds for many 4 00:00:27,427 --> 00:00:29,462 different species. 5 00:00:29,562 --> 00:00:34,834 The fish are just going about their business. You just see them in their own element eating 6 00:00:34,934 --> 00:00:39,906 and cruising and it s really neat to see. 7 00:00:40,006 --> 00:00:47,313 These are the Flats - a place where recreational anglers pursue the legendary bonefish, tarpon 8 00:00:47,414 --> 00:00:48,982 and permit. 9 00:00:49,082 --> 00:00:53,720 There's no other place I'd rather be fly fishing than on the flats. 10 00:00:53,820 --> 00:00:59,993 Flats fishing is just a very romanticized, dramatic thing. 11 00:01:00,093 --> 00:01:07,100 It s just the allure, poling around these flats and trying to find a fish. 12 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,637 Oh, come on. What is that? Is that fish? 13 00:01:10,737 --> 00:01:13,473 Flats fishing is not like you drop a piece of shrimp to the bottom and wait for the fish 14 00:01:13,573 --> 00:01:17,310 to eat it. Flats fishing is a hunt. 15 00:01:17,410 --> 00:01:23,149 It's very much a stalking game, it's like hunting except you get to release the fish 16 00:01:23,249 --> 00:01:27,620 when you catch it. 17 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:32,425 You actually have to see the fish before you throw the fly. 18 00:01:32,525 --> 00:01:36,563 You're trying to trick a fish into eating a completely artificial fly that you've often 19 00:01:36,663 --> 00:01:39,566 tied yourself out of materials. 20 00:01:39,666 --> 00:01:43,069 It's pretty challenging especially when weather conditions aren't in your favor. 21 00:01:43,169 --> 00:01:47,474 You're not thinking about anything else when you're out on the flats. 22 00:01:47,574 --> 00:01:52,112 Research commissioned by the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust has shown these recreational 23 00:01:52,212 --> 00:01:54,581 fisheries are worth big money. 24 00:01:54,681 --> 00:02:00,553 There s a study, in 2009, in the middle of the recession, found that the annual economic 25 00:02:00,653 --> 00:02:05,925 impact of the bonefish catch and release fishery in the Bahamas was 141 million dollars. We 26 00:02:06,025 --> 00:02:11,097 are in the process of redoing that study now and preliminary estimates are that it's more 27 00:02:11,197 --> 00:02:16,269 than 200 million dollars. In the Florida Keys, the flats fishery, which is bonefish, tarpon 28 00:02:16,369 --> 00:02:22,408 and permit, the annual economic impact is over 460 million dollars. 29 00:02:22,509 --> 00:02:26,479 But in some areas, these fish are on the decline. 30 00:02:26,579 --> 00:02:33,286 In order for us to pass this down, we have to secure what we have now. And in order to 31 00:02:33,386 --> 00:02:37,357 do that, you've got to work with the researchers. 32 00:02:37,457 --> 00:02:43,329 What does scientific research reveal about bonefish, tarpon and permit? Can it help to 33 00:02:43,429 --> 00:03:10,757 ensure their survival into the future? 34 00:03:10,857 --> 00:03:16,129 Major funding for this program was provided by the Batchelor Foundation, encouraging people 35 00:03:16,229 --> 00:03:24,470 to preserve and protect America s underwater resources. And by: Diver s Direct and Ocean 36 00:03:24,571 --> 00:03:35,982 Divers; The Do Unto Others Trust; The Charles N. and Eleanor Knight Leigh Foundation. And 37 00:03:36,082 --> 00:04:03,276 by the following. 38 00:04:03,376 --> 00:04:08,314 The Florida Keys - fabled fishing grounds where history is made. 39 00:04:08,414 --> 00:04:14,654 The Keys is really the birthplace of the flats fishery, it started here post World War II 40 00:04:14,754 --> 00:04:20,026 and has just really has taken off since. 41 00:04:20,126 --> 00:04:25,465 In the world of fly fishing and saltwater flats fishing, the Florida Keys is hallowed 42 00:04:25,565 --> 00:04:28,701 grounds in many ways. 43 00:04:28,801 --> 00:04:34,440 People come from all over to the Florida Keys and try to catch some of the tarpon, the permit, 44 00:04:34,540 --> 00:04:39,078 the bonefish that are found in the flats in the back country here. So that's really important 45 00:04:39,178 --> 00:04:42,448 to this community, not only economically but also culturally. 46 00:04:42,548 --> 00:04:49,889 On the Florida Keys heyday, it was the world number one destination to go flats fishing. 47 00:04:49,989 --> 00:05:01,367 Islamorada was the fishing capital of the world. But now, we've virtually lost our bonefishery. 48 00:05:01,467 --> 00:05:08,441 By the 1990s, guides and anglers had noticed a major decline in bonefish. To understand 49 00:05:08,541 --> 00:05:15,281 what was happening, a group of them came together in 1997 and created what is now known as the 50 00:05:15,381 --> 00:05:19,585 Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, or BTT for short. 51 00:05:19,686 --> 00:05:25,024 They quickly realized that nobody knew anything about bonefish, tarpon, or permit from a scientific 52 00:05:25,124 --> 00:05:29,462 perspective so they became a science-based conservation organization. 53 00:05:29,562 --> 00:05:35,001 BTT conducts some of that research with our own staff, but we also do a lot of external 54 00:05:35,101 --> 00:05:39,839 funding, So, we'll work with colleagues in universities, other non-profits to get a lot 55 00:05:39,939 --> 00:05:42,342 of research done. 56 00:05:42,442 --> 00:05:47,880 Experts speculate one of the reasons for the decline in bonefish could be habitat degradation 57 00:05:47,980 --> 00:05:49,282 and loss. 58 00:05:49,382 --> 00:05:53,619 The basis for healthy fisheries is healthy habitat. 59 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:58,324 We have water quality issues from leaky septic tanks that occur in the Lower Keys and major 60 00:05:58,424 --> 00:06:02,528 water management issues in the Northern Keys that have caused algal blooms and sea grass 61 00:06:02,628 --> 00:06:04,831 die-offs at unprecedented scales. 62 00:06:04,931 --> 00:06:10,036 We're seeing some issues with pollution, things like nutrients and other contaminants getting 63 00:06:10,136 --> 00:06:15,041 into the water that impact the habitat quality and potentially even the fish themselves through 64 00:06:15,141 --> 00:06:17,110 disease or parasites. 65 00:06:17,210 --> 00:06:22,982 We let the data lead the way and advocate for the types of regulations and restoration 66 00:06:23,082 --> 00:06:28,888 that are needed to fix the system. 67 00:06:28,988 --> 00:06:34,994 Nicknamed the gray ghost, bonefish are listed as near threatened by the International 68 00:06:35,094 --> 00:06:41,367 Union for Conservation of Nature, and in Florida, they are catch and release only. 69 00:06:41,467 --> 00:06:48,107 The species of bonefish that we fish for in the flats, albula vulpes, is one of four species 70 00:06:48,207 --> 00:06:53,446 total in the Caribbean and one of three that you might catch on the flats. But, albula 71 00:06:53,546 --> 00:06:58,451 vulpes is well over ninety-eight percent, ninety-nine percent of what anglers catch 72 00:06:58,551 --> 00:07:02,088 and you can't tell a difference by looking at them, it's only genetics. 73 00:07:02,188 --> 00:07:03,589 Where d they go? 74 00:07:03,689 --> 00:07:05,691 I see tailing fish. 75 00:07:05,792 --> 00:07:12,131 BTT scientists quickly realized that to understand bonefish populations and behavior they needed 76 00:07:12,231 --> 00:07:16,903 to expand their research to a regional approach. 77 00:07:17,003 --> 00:07:21,407 One place where bonefish populations are still healthy is the Bahamas. 78 00:07:21,507 --> 00:07:26,512 Bonefish are very culturally significant to the Bahamas, you can find it on our ten-cent 79 00:07:26,612 --> 00:07:30,817 coin, and people have been eating bonefish for generations, it actually used to be a 80 00:07:30,917 --> 00:07:34,854 staple of the Bahamian diet prior to food imports coming from abroad. 81 00:07:34,954 --> 00:07:38,658 The only way you can legally catch bonefish is via hook and line and that's for your own 82 00:07:38,758 --> 00:07:42,161 personal consumption, there's no buying or selling of bonefish. 83 00:07:42,261 --> 00:07:47,500 These days, the majority of bonefish are caught by sports fishermen who practice catch and 84 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:49,602 release. 85 00:07:49,702 --> 00:07:55,408 To make management recommendations that adequately protect the fish and their habitats, experts 86 00:07:55,508 --> 00:07:57,710 needed to understand their movements. 87 00:07:57,810 --> 00:08:04,317 A lot of marine fish aggregate to spawn, they don't spawn where they live most of the year. 88 00:08:04,417 --> 00:08:08,821 We wanted to figure out from how far bonefish will travel from a home site to a spawning 89 00:08:08,921 --> 00:08:11,657 location. 90 00:08:11,757 --> 00:08:16,295 To do so, scientists capture the fish and tag them. 91 00:08:16,395 --> 00:08:22,335 We use a 50-foot soft mesh seine net, that's about four feet deep. Once we spot a school 92 00:08:22,435 --> 00:08:28,407 we'll try to basically encircle them. 93 00:08:28,508 --> 00:08:32,445 Once we've encircled them, we'll take a few fish put them in a holding pen, and then we'll 94 00:08:32,545 --> 00:08:36,549 start working them up from there. First thing we do when we work up these fish, we're going 95 00:08:36,649 --> 00:08:41,954 to pop them on our measuring board, get a fork length measurement, we're going to put 96 00:08:42,054 --> 00:08:43,823 a tag in that fish. 97 00:08:43,923 --> 00:08:49,428 We'll also use a syringe with a plastic tube and we can sample eggs from the females and 98 00:08:49,529 --> 00:08:52,565 determine if they're spawning ready. 99 00:08:52,665 --> 00:08:59,105 In addition to the external dart tags, scientists also surgically insert acoustic tags in some 100 00:08:59,205 --> 00:09:00,940 fish. 101 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:03,476 We put them in large females. Because those are the ones that are definitely going to 102 00:09:03,576 --> 00:09:05,444 spawn. 103 00:09:05,545 --> 00:09:10,349 Acoustic tags put out a supersonic ping, that we can't hear but we have underwater receivers 104 00:09:10,449 --> 00:09:12,885 that can detect those pings. 105 00:09:12,985 --> 00:09:18,791 These underwater receivers are placed at regular intervals across a study site. Each time a 106 00:09:18,891 --> 00:09:26,032 fish swims by a receiver its individual ID is detected and recorded for download later. 107 00:09:26,132 --> 00:09:32,872 Looks like we got a bunch of detections at the full moon at the beginning of March and 108 00:09:32,972 --> 00:09:43,349 then we had fish 11790 show up just today. 109 00:09:43,449 --> 00:09:48,120 Over the last eight years we've been doing work in the Bahamas, we've tagged over thirteen 110 00:09:48,220 --> 00:09:52,558 thousand bonefish around the Bahamas and had close to seven hundred recaptures. Seventy-two 111 00:09:52,658 --> 00:09:57,863 percent of them were caught within a mile of where they were originally tagged. And 112 00:09:57,964 --> 00:10:01,767 then of that 72 percent, 69 percent were caught in the exact same spot. So, these fish have 113 00:10:01,867 --> 00:10:03,669 really, really small home ranges. 114 00:10:03,769 --> 00:10:07,607 But, we also found that they'll make really long-distance movements for spawning. We were 115 00:10:07,707 --> 00:10:10,810 able to see that was around the full and new moon between October through April, which 116 00:10:10,910 --> 00:10:17,149 is spawning season. We've had multiple fish from the west side of Abaco do 140 miles round 117 00:10:17,249 --> 00:10:22,421 trip just to get to a spawning site and back. We also had one fish, it was also tagged out 118 00:10:22,521 --> 00:10:26,592 in Abaco as part of a spawning run, and then was caught later on the north side of Grand 119 00:10:26,692 --> 00:10:28,527 Bahama. 120 00:10:28,628 --> 00:10:35,201 During the day, bonefish that are ready to spawn gather in groups, or so-called pre-spawning 121 00:10:35,301 --> 00:10:40,072 aggregations, near deep water, before moving offshore at night. 122 00:10:40,172 --> 00:10:44,577 As the sun sets they become more active and you'll see them starting to gulp at the surface 123 00:10:44,677 --> 00:10:46,312 or even jump out of the water and porpoise. 124 00:10:46,412 --> 00:10:49,148 It's pretty unique from a biological standpoint. 125 00:10:49,248 --> 00:10:56,155 And it really only happens for about 20 minutes, half an hour as they're making that movement 126 00:10:56,255 --> 00:11:01,460 from these transitional habitats to the deep drop off. And we're kind of hypothesizing 127 00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:05,564 that they're actually gulping air to fill up their swim bladders and maybe fill up their 128 00:11:05,665 --> 00:11:11,170 gastrointestinal tract and then they go off the wall down deep and that compresses the 129 00:11:11,270 --> 00:11:16,008 air and at the same time they're making their eggs really big and puffy and slippery. And 130 00:11:16,108 --> 00:11:19,812 when you go down the air compresses, and if you come up fast the air expands and it helps 131 00:11:19,912 --> 00:11:24,116 to push the eggs out and then the male then releases the sperm, and then they fertilize 132 00:11:24,216 --> 00:11:26,619 the eggs and then drift around in the ocean. 133 00:11:26,719 --> 00:11:34,093 The eggs hatch offshore in open water and drift around as larvae for about 40 to 70 134 00:11:34,193 --> 00:11:35,961 days. 135 00:11:36,062 --> 00:11:40,566 Eventually the larvae move into shallow, inshore waters where they settle and metamorphose 136 00:11:40,666 --> 00:11:43,102 into baby bonefish. 137 00:11:43,202 --> 00:11:47,773 The theory is that when fish spawn offshore, the ocean currents transport some of those 138 00:11:47,873 --> 00:11:52,745 larvae back to the same area where the fish grew up. But then some of the larvae are transported 139 00:11:52,845 --> 00:11:58,851 to other islands, so that gives their genes a chance of surviving even if there's a catastrophe 140 00:11:58,951 --> 00:12:03,856 in the location where the parents grew up. And since we live in a place that has high 141 00:12:03,956 --> 00:12:09,395 frequency of hurricanes, that's a pretty good strategy. 142 00:12:09,495 --> 00:12:15,101 To understand exactly where the currents might take the larvae, scientists conducted computer 143 00:12:15,201 --> 00:12:18,037 modeling research. 144 00:12:18,137 --> 00:12:22,908 And that has shown that there's a high probability of connectivity between the Florida Keys, 145 00:12:23,008 --> 00:12:29,048 southwest Cuba, the Yucatan Peninsula like Mexico and Belize, and other locations. And 146 00:12:29,148 --> 00:12:34,820 it looks like there's a lot of connectivity between the north coast of Cuba and the Bahamas. 147 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:39,892 Understanding how bonefish populations are connected helps scientists determine if conservation 148 00:12:39,992 --> 00:12:45,431 strategies should be local or regional, and knowing fish migration routes and spawning 149 00:12:45,531 --> 00:12:50,269 locations allows them to advocate for habitat protection. 150 00:12:50,369 --> 00:12:54,940 Fish populations can recover from overfishing, but if they lose their habitats the game's 151 00:12:55,040 --> 00:12:56,842 over. 152 00:12:56,942 --> 00:12:58,944 We've been working with Bahamas National Trust and Nature Conservancy in the Bahamas to use 153 00:12:59,044 --> 00:13:04,316 some of our information on bonefish habitat use, spawning migrations and spawning sites 154 00:13:04,416 --> 00:13:07,720 to help them identify places for protection. 155 00:13:07,820 --> 00:13:13,492 The Bahamas National Trust is charged with managing the natural resources of the Bahamas 156 00:13:13,592 --> 00:13:17,563 and the Trust manages 32 national parks. 157 00:13:17,663 --> 00:13:21,300 Back in 2015, we got five new national parks put in place. 158 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:26,939 And this was based mainly on the work that was conducted through the assistance of Bonefish 159 00:13:27,039 --> 00:13:28,808 Tarpon Trust. 160 00:13:28,908 --> 00:13:33,379 The main purpose of these parks was to stop unsustainable development, so for example 161 00:13:33,479 --> 00:13:37,249 the East Grand Bahama Park was under threat of sand mining, so if that happened, that 162 00:13:37,349 --> 00:13:42,154 would have not only possibly killed off the bonefishery but a lot of other economic important 163 00:13:42,254 --> 00:13:43,989 fisheries. 164 00:13:44,089 --> 00:13:48,360 We do a lot of work with the fishermen, the guides, the communities, Bahamas National 165 00:13:48,460 --> 00:13:54,266 Trust and other organizations on education. Because conservation will only work if the 166 00:13:54,366 --> 00:13:56,635 people who live in those areas buy into it. 167 00:13:56,735 --> 00:14:02,074 It's a lot of, you know, stuff that they share with me that I had no idea. So, they educate 168 00:14:02,174 --> 00:14:04,743 a lot of the guides when they come here. 169 00:14:04,844 --> 00:14:09,682 Even though I know a lot over 19 years of doing it, the science part of it is new for 170 00:14:09,782 --> 00:14:13,752 me and it helps me understand some stuff I was wondering about years ago. 171 00:14:13,853 --> 00:14:18,691 So, we're working now to take what we learned from the Bahamas and figure out where exactly 172 00:14:18,791 --> 00:14:23,629 they spawn in the Keys so we can not only protect those areas, but understand how those 173 00:14:23,729 --> 00:14:29,201 areas are being used, how things like pollution or boat traffic may impact that and also look 174 00:14:29,301 --> 00:14:31,303 at migration pathways. 175 00:14:31,403 --> 00:14:44,049 Eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it! 176 00:14:44,149 --> 00:14:49,588 Another popular game fish that spends time on the flats is the Atlantic tarpon, whose 177 00:14:49,688 --> 00:14:55,194 range extends from the U.S. to Brazil and Africa. 178 00:14:55,294 --> 00:15:00,299 Tarpon and bonefish are in the same family. They're a very old lineage 179 00:15:00,399 --> 00:15:06,372 Small tarpon- we're talking like six to twelve inches. Medium size, you'll get into the 50-pound 180 00:15:06,472 --> 00:15:10,776 range. And then big tarpon, two hundred plus pound. 181 00:15:10,876 --> 00:15:14,546 Recreational anglers like to target them because of their size and the fact that they jump. 182 00:15:14,647 --> 00:15:17,516 That's pretty, pretty dramatic and really gets the heart pumping. 183 00:15:17,616 --> 00:15:24,890 The last 20 feet bringing them to the boat is the hardest. 184 00:15:24,990 --> 00:15:31,597 Nicknamed the Silver King, tarpon migrate to the Florida Keys between March and June. 185 00:15:31,697 --> 00:15:37,069 A lot of times we'll see you know, thousands of fish under the bridges cruising through 186 00:15:37,169 --> 00:15:41,974 the Lower Keys and the Middle Keys. These are basically pre-spawning aggregations. We 187 00:15:42,074 --> 00:15:46,879 have yet to identify where they're spawning offshore. 188 00:15:46,979 --> 00:15:51,216 Recreational anglers enjoy hooking the fish that aggregate beneath the bridges, but they 189 00:15:51,317 --> 00:15:56,789 aren t the only ones looking for a catch. Large sharks often prey on tarpon fighting 190 00:15:56,889 --> 00:16:03,829 on the line, or exhausted fish that have been let go. This has scientists worried. 191 00:16:03,929 --> 00:16:07,466 As soon as they re stressed or tired and the sharks kind of win. 192 00:16:07,566 --> 00:16:13,305 You know, is fishing for them under the bridges having a significant impact on their populations? 193 00:16:13,405 --> 00:16:19,411 As an angler and as a scientist, I want to answer it for both sides. 194 00:16:19,511 --> 00:16:23,849 It s understanding the predator-prey interactions that's really going to be the next step in 195 00:16:23,949 --> 00:16:28,921 terms of tarpon ecology and tarpon conservation. 196 00:16:29,021 --> 00:16:34,159 Like their colleagues in the Bahamas, Andy and his team from the University of Massachusetts 197 00:16:34,259 --> 00:16:39,732 Amherst, also use acoustic tags to track the movements of tarpon. 198 00:16:39,832 --> 00:16:47,539 We're tagging from all the way around the west coast of Florida up into the Carolinas. 199 00:16:47,639 --> 00:16:53,212 Tarpon spend time in a variety of habitats ranging from offshore to inshore wetlands 200 00:16:53,312 --> 00:16:55,781 and coastal estuaries. 201 00:16:55,881 --> 00:17:03,822 With acoustic telemetry we can put these tags in tarpon that are 15 pounds or a 150 pounds. 202 00:17:03,922 --> 00:17:12,698 And that's allowed us to really start to uncover some really neat movement patterns that we 203 00:17:12,798 --> 00:17:16,502 wouldn't normally have predicted. So, for instance we ve had some tarpon that were 204 00:17:16,602 --> 00:17:23,075 tagged in the Lower Keys, that are in the 40 to 50-pound range that we wouldn't necessarily 205 00:17:23,175 --> 00:17:28,580 equate to a fish that's migrating a lot, to then have shown up past Cape Canaveral and 206 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:31,683 then returning back to the Keys for successive years. 207 00:17:31,784 --> 00:17:36,822 We had one of our tarpon that was tagged here show up off of the Chesapeake. And so that's, 208 00:17:36,922 --> 00:17:39,758 that s pretty major. 209 00:17:39,858 --> 00:17:44,730 The acoustic telemetry is great, because there's a lot of other scientists that use the same 210 00:17:44,830 --> 00:17:49,835 receivers and it allows us to share data. 211 00:17:49,935 --> 00:17:55,707 The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Atlantic tarpon as vulnerable, 212 00:17:55,808 --> 00:17:58,210 based on past harvest and habitat loss. 213 00:17:58,310 --> 00:18:01,513 See that group right there of happy guys going left? 214 00:18:01,613 --> 00:18:07,252 Currently their management varies by location, creating potential conservation challenges 215 00:18:07,352 --> 00:18:09,555 along their migratory routes. 216 00:18:09,655 --> 00:18:16,595 In Florida, tarpon are catch and release only except for people who want to harvest the 217 00:18:16,695 --> 00:18:21,633 tarpon for a world record. In order to do so they have to have a special tarpon tag. 218 00:18:21,733 --> 00:18:25,804 Fish that are over forty inches in length have to stay in the water, you can't bring 219 00:18:25,904 --> 00:18:27,706 them into the boat. 220 00:18:27,806 --> 00:18:31,510 There isn't a lot of harvest in Florida, but if they go to other states where they're still 221 00:18:31,610 --> 00:18:35,380 legally allowed to be harvested, then that's a concern. 222 00:18:35,481 --> 00:18:41,320 I think we all have to work together to think about the conservation of these species. 223 00:18:41,420 --> 00:18:45,991 Because of their migratory nature and the fact that they get intercepted all along the 224 00:18:46,091 --> 00:19:02,241 way, the economic value of the tarpon fishery is huge. 225 00:19:02,341 --> 00:19:08,347 Most fly-fishermen agree that of the three species they like to catch on the flats, one 226 00:19:08,447 --> 00:19:09,948 is the most challenging. 227 00:19:10,048 --> 00:19:13,385 You might consider bonefish the gateway drug. 228 00:19:13,485 --> 00:19:16,955 And then you migrate up to tarpon, which is a little bit harder. 229 00:19:17,055 --> 00:19:20,392 The inevitable end of the road leads to permit. 230 00:19:20,492 --> 00:19:26,732 It's right at the top of the fly-fishing food chain as far as being difficult and hard 231 00:19:26,832 --> 00:19:28,333 to do. 232 00:19:28,433 --> 00:19:32,237 Even God has a hard time catching permit on fly. 233 00:19:32,337 --> 00:19:38,343 You can do everything exactly right in your mind, at least, and they still might not eat 234 00:19:38,443 --> 00:19:40,179 your fly. 235 00:19:40,279 --> 00:19:46,318 Permit are one of the more spooky fish that exist and it s really just the chase, the 236 00:19:46,418 --> 00:19:53,325 chance and the glory of just holding that fish that really drives people. 237 00:19:53,425 --> 00:20:01,867 It's a lifetime achievement for many of the anglers that come down here. 238 00:20:01,967 --> 00:20:07,940 Just how difficult it is to catch permit on fly is evident at the March Merkin invitational 239 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,676 fishing tournament held in Key West each year. 240 00:20:10,776 --> 00:20:17,683 You look at a three-day tournament with 26 boats and one team caught two fish. Last year 241 00:20:17,783 --> 00:20:22,621 one team caught one fish and granted we had really tough weather, but it's - it really 242 00:20:22,721 --> 00:20:24,590 is like a legitimately special thing. 243 00:20:24,690 --> 00:20:30,462 It's very difficult but these guys are some of the top people in the world, top anglers 244 00:20:30,562 --> 00:20:35,400 and top guides that fish this tournament. 245 00:20:35,500 --> 00:20:41,607 That s a perm-perm. Oh boy a little close. Fudge, oh he s 246 00:20:41,707 --> 00:20:42,808 coming back for it. 247 00:20:42,908 --> 00:20:45,077 Did he eat it? 248 00:20:45,177 --> 00:20:46,912 No. 249 00:20:47,012 --> 00:20:49,615 These fish see a lot of angling pressure and when you catch them often, they get smart 250 00:20:49,715 --> 00:20:51,717 about it. 251 00:20:51,817 --> 00:20:54,653 It's definitely the big leagues of fishing down here. It s probably- the permit fishery 252 00:20:54,753 --> 00:20:59,458 down here has got to be one of the best, but also one of the most challenging in the world. 253 00:20:59,558 --> 00:21:05,130 Proceeds from the March Merkin tournament help to fund Project Permit, a research project 254 00:21:05,230 --> 00:21:10,002 spearheaded by Dr. Jake Brownscombe from Carleton University. 255 00:21:10,102 --> 00:21:11,503 Permit are in the jack family. 256 00:21:11,603 --> 00:21:13,872 60 pounds is the world record. 257 00:21:13,972 --> 00:21:19,845 They're found only in the Western Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. 258 00:21:19,945 --> 00:21:24,449 Because there's no monitoring done on these species, we don't really have a sense of exactly 259 00:21:24,549 --> 00:21:29,554 what's been going on with their population numbers over time. 260 00:21:29,655 --> 00:21:33,392 From my experience interacting with the fishing guides down here, especially those that have 261 00:21:33,492 --> 00:21:38,263 been around for quite a while, the permit numbers have been declining pretty significantly. 262 00:21:38,363 --> 00:21:43,468 So that's got me personally very concerned about these species. 263 00:21:43,568 --> 00:21:50,842 Permit spend time on the flats as well as on nearshore reefs and wrecks. In 2016, Jake 264 00:21:50,942 --> 00:21:56,515 started an acoustic tracking project in the lower Florida Keys. The goal is to better 265 00:21:56,615 --> 00:21:59,551 understand the permits movement patterns. 266 00:21:59,651 --> 00:22:04,623 Whether they're moving throughout, all the Florida Keys, or connecting up farther north 267 00:22:04,723 --> 00:22:10,162 in Florida or if they remain resident in smaller areas. As well as whether they're moving between 268 00:22:10,262 --> 00:22:14,466 the flats, and the reefs and the shipwrecks. This is particularly important information 269 00:22:14,566 --> 00:22:19,738 because on the flats, it's primarily a catch and release fishery. On the reefs and on the 270 00:22:19,838 --> 00:22:24,009 shipwrecks, they have a tendency to be harvested more often. It's just a different group of 271 00:22:24,109 --> 00:22:25,844 anglers. 272 00:22:25,944 --> 00:22:29,314 In the first year of tracking we found that over forty percent of the fish that visit 273 00:22:29,414 --> 00:22:34,052 the flats also go out to the Florida reef tract. 274 00:22:34,152 --> 00:22:38,156 Many of these fish are doing it multiple times a year and again always returning back to 275 00:22:38,256 --> 00:22:40,959 the exact same flat. Even if it's 50, 60 miles away. 276 00:22:41,059 --> 00:22:45,630 So that's telling us that these fish that are comprising mainly a catch and release 277 00:22:45,731 --> 00:22:49,968 fishery here on the flats are also becoming more vulnerable to harvest through that other 278 00:22:50,068 --> 00:22:53,004 fishery on the Florida reef tract. 279 00:22:53,105 --> 00:22:58,510 This connectivity is particularly important during spawning season, when the fish are 280 00:22:58,610 --> 00:23:01,813 especially vulnerable to fishing pressure. 281 00:23:01,913 --> 00:23:05,917 They spawn in big aggregations where they migrate in mass off to offshore wrecks and 282 00:23:06,017 --> 00:23:07,953 reefs. 283 00:23:08,053 --> 00:23:11,890 This is a really important part of their life cycle where they're contributing to the population. 284 00:23:11,990 --> 00:23:15,894 And so, we need to understand when and where that they're doing this spawning behavior 285 00:23:15,994 --> 00:23:20,031 and try to afford them some protection when they are doing that. 286 00:23:20,132 --> 00:23:25,837 In 2011, at the urging of local guides and the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, the Florida 287 00:23:25,937 --> 00:23:32,010 Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission created a Special Permit Zone. 288 00:23:32,110 --> 00:23:35,347 And that changed the regulations for permit. It made a closed harvest season within the 289 00:23:35,447 --> 00:23:39,117 Keys where people couldn't keep permit during their spawning season, which at that time 290 00:23:39,217 --> 00:23:41,820 was documented from May to July. 291 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:47,426 The new regulations also changed bag limits during the months when harvest is permitted. 292 00:23:47,526 --> 00:23:52,197 You can keep one fish per day over 22 inches in fork length. 293 00:23:52,297 --> 00:23:56,568 Outside of that zone the regulations are not as strict. 294 00:23:56,668 --> 00:24:02,174 But in recent years, new information about spawning times came to light. 295 00:24:02,274 --> 00:24:06,945 Anglers reported to us that permit were spawning a month earlier than they used to twenty years 296 00:24:07,045 --> 00:24:08,847 ago. 297 00:24:08,947 --> 00:24:11,850 And they reported to us that people were going out there and harvesting these spawning fish 298 00:24:11,950 --> 00:24:16,087 at pretty high numbers and they were not being protected by the closed season that's already 299 00:24:16,188 --> 00:24:18,023 in place. 300 00:24:18,123 --> 00:24:21,193 These observations were confirmed by the tracking study. 301 00:24:21,293 --> 00:24:25,730 They're actually showing up on the reef in very specific spots in these very large schools 302 00:24:25,831 --> 00:24:30,735 starting in April. And so, using that information we were able to get the harvest closure period 303 00:24:30,836 --> 00:24:35,240 extended to cover April as well. So, this is a really important conservation measure, 304 00:24:35,340 --> 00:24:38,376 and we're really happy that we were able to make a difference in the management and conservation 305 00:24:38,477 --> 00:24:39,911 so quickly with this project. 306 00:24:40,011 --> 00:24:49,654 It s very exciting and we're all very proud of this accomplishment. 307 00:24:49,754 --> 00:24:55,861 The Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, together with its scientific collaborators, is using research 308 00:24:55,961 --> 00:25:01,466 findings to conserve and restore the flats fisheries for many generations of anglers 309 00:25:01,566 --> 00:25:08,039 to come. And they re joined in their efforts by local fishing guides, who share in their 310 00:25:08,139 --> 00:25:09,975 mission. 311 00:25:10,075 --> 00:25:13,778 A lot of them donate their time to helping us out to tag these fish. It wouldn't be possible 312 00:25:13,879 --> 00:25:15,714 to get this done without them. 313 00:25:15,814 --> 00:25:21,887 I think they've become really good friends and allies in the research and also understanding 314 00:25:21,987 --> 00:25:28,093 that how the data from this work can lead to conserving bonefish and tarpon and permit. 315 00:25:28,193 --> 00:25:31,897 You need to protect what you love to do try to keep it around for as many generations 316 00:25:31,997 --> 00:25:33,365 as possible. 317 00:25:33,465 --> 00:26:08,800 Our goal, and BTT's goal, is to save the fisheries for the future. 318 00:26:08,900 --> 00:26:14,172 Major funding for this program was provided by the Batchelor Foundation, encouraging people 319 00:26:14,272 --> 00:26:22,514 to preserve and protect America s underwater resources. And by: Diver s Direct and Ocean 320 00:26:22,614 --> 00:26:33,992 Divers; The Do Unto Others Trust; The Charles N. and Eleanor Knight Leigh Foundation. And 321 00:26:34,092 --> 00:26:38,092 by the following.