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Tagging along in the Bahamas

By Nick Honachefsky


Stalking bonefish on the Exuma Bahamas flats, Captain Marvin Bethel outstretched his finger and pointed to vague black dots in the azure waters coming at us quickly. “Crouch down! Crouch down!” he ordered in a hushed whisper. The bonefish school made a quick turn and I placed a shrimp fly just outside the school, pulling one lone bonefish off to come inspect. Heart was pumping, nerves were flittering, and…the bonefish passed. Missed shot. It wasn’t necessarily the passed opportunity to come tight with a bonefish that frustrated me, but the fact that I missed an opportunity to tag the fish in line with newly expanded fish tagging efforts of the Bahamian country.


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The Bahamas has been leading a charge into fisheries tagging efforts in order to better understand species movements to impart sensible and scientifically backed conservation efforts and regulations. Dr. Guy Harvey and his Guy Harvey Research Institute has worked fastidiously in the Bahamas implementing tagging efforts, most notably with his shark tagging program that has imparted numerous satellite tags on tiger and oceanic white tip sharks in Bahamian waters. The GHRI also works in Bahamian areas with partners such as the Dolphinfish Research Program and the Beyond Our Shores Foundation. Dr. Harvey’s leading efforts provided the inspiration in the back of my mind when I stepped on the shores of Exuma.


My bonefishing luck changed as I hopped a boat from Hideaways Palm Bay for the hour and half ride to Staniel Cay’s Embrace Resort to meet up with Capt. Oliver “Slick” Munroe on his 16 foot Boston Whaler. Poling around the backside flats of Ivy Cay, we flushed schools of bones intermittently, until a pod was pushed up into super skinny water next to a coral overhang. “Get outta da boat and walk to dem quietly,” said Slick. Gingerly trudging in the waters, I spied a silver flash and with one long cast of the fly rod, a few slow strips of the Spanish Shrimp fly, the line came tight and the roostertailing of the fly line zipped through the water. This time, a bonefish was in hand, but as Murphy’s Law dictates, the tags were in the boat, a hundred yards away. Releasing the bonefish healthy and full of vigor was of paramount importance, so the tagging had to take a backseat this time, which I am sure the bone appreciated as it whisked its tail and sent a splash of water in my face as it sped away.

Jim McDuffie, director of the Bonefish Tarpon Trust (BTT), reports that his organization’s tagging program, along with its partners, have tagged more than 13,000 bonefish in The Bahamas over the years. “This was done initially to learn more about bonefish home ranges, spawning areas, migration pathways and the movement patterns by bonefish between them—new knowledge at the time,” stated McDuffie. “As the knowledge accrued, we used it successfully, in partnership with BNT, to secure the declaration in 2015 of five protected areas and the expansion of a sixth—essentially all of the important habitats for bonefish around Abaco and Grand Bahama.” McDuffie notes the work has continued since 2015 and has led to the discovery of several more bonefish PSAs on other islands. “Eight are confirmed and a ninth is close at hand.” The BTT plans on tracking spawning bonefish off Bimini on the full moon in March and off Grand Bahama on the full moon in April.

But its not all about bonefish tagging in the Bahamas. Dolphinfish share center stage in the Bahamian tagging efforts. Wessley Merten, director of the Dolphinfish Research Programfinds the clean turquoise waters and relative location and geomorphology of the Bahamian islands as key assets to tagging mahimahi. “The Bahamas is interesting with deep basins semi-enclosed seas comprising a complex oceanographic area,” said Merten. “Pelagics move through the area but it’s the eccentric currents; geomorphology of the islands, which corrals and holds mahi in pools.” Merten notes that the overall recovery rate of worldwide mahi tagging efforts is 2.1% but that rate is much higher in the Keys and Bahamas. Those returns are providing interesting information. “We’ve found that mahi will reside inside those basins for 2 to 3 months and stick around almost like a swirling circle,” states Merten. “One fish was recaptured in the Tongue of the Ocean 77 days later in the same spot, they stick to the area. Dolphin push in on the northern point of Exuma sound while March through May is best time to catch and tag.”


With that timeframe in mind, I hopped on the Fish Rowe sportfish charter out of Georgetown, Exuma in early March to test the waters for tagging mahi. After a few passes trolling skirted ballyhoo baits in 500 feet of water, the port line rigger snapped off and the battle was on. Our Bahamian Tourism rep Ariell cranked the reel to fight her first pelagic fish, when green and gold coloring glittered through the water 10 yards away. Captain Doug Rowe grabbed the leader and swung the 7 pound class mahi into the boat. This time, with Gray fish tag in hand, I promptly implanted the tag behind and along the side the dorsal fin of the fish, sending it back into the water less than 10 seconds after it was hoisted aboard. Mission accomplished. Now I had a connectivity to that mahi and started to wonder what the future held for its life, which brought me back to what Merten mentioned to me before my trip. “There’s a definite connectivity of the Bahamas to the US waters. The most interesting aspect is mahi tagged in the Keys and Miami flow to the NE Bahamian escarpment. Fish follow the gulf stream to the north sweeping around to the Bahamas which is generally the end of the circuit or completes the circuit. We are noticing that some mahi stay in that pattern and in the area for 190 to 320 days.” With the massive population and presence of dolphinfish in the Bahamian waters, along with the findings the schools spend much of their life in the area, Merten offers his opinion on continuing efforts to tag. “I believe it is very prudent for the Bahamian Government to pursue conservation efforts and measures as the Bahamian waters are in the major circuit of mahi migration habits.”

My previous thoughts in general were that mahi migrate expansively, but then a thought entered my mind.  Would my tagged mahi stick around and grow, then be caught again by someone fishing the same Exuma area in the near future? Time will tell if that tag comes back to garner the information it will reveal.


WANT TO TAG ALONG IN BAHAMAS?

Bonefish Tarpon Trust - https://www.bonefishtarpontrust.org/

Stay at:

Embrace Resort, Staniel Cay, (242) 524- 7447; info@embraceresort.com; https://www.embraceresort.com

 

Guides:

Capt. Oliver “Bonefish Slick” Munroe - (242)-524-7200

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