Bonefish & Tarpon Journal - Spring 2025

SHARKS ON FLORIDA’S FLATS

BONEFISH A publication of

& TARPON

MEXICO’S ASCENSION BAY

RESTORING INDIAN RIVER LAGOON

JOURNAL CONSERVATION THROUGH SCIENCE • SPRING 2025

B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025

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ESTRADA ROVE 7/9

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Craftsmanship meets conservation with the limited-edition Bonefish & Tarpon Trust SDS and ROVE reels, featuring custom artwork

by Derek DeYoung and Eric Estrada. Part of the Abel Artist Series, each laser engraved reel supports vital initiatives like Bahamas Mangrove Restoration and Bonefish Spawning Research.

Proudly designed, machined, and assembled in the USA. Explore the Collection

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B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025

VISIT ABELREELS.COM

& TARPON

BONEFISH A publication of

JOURNAL

Editorial Board

Dr. Aaron Adams, Monte Burke, Bill Horn, Jim McDuffie, Carl Navarre, T. Edward Nickens, Kellie Ralston

Publication Team Publishers: Carl Navarre, Jim McDuffie Editor: Nick Roberts Editorial Assistant: Isabel Lower Layout and Design: Scott Morrison, Morrison Creative Company

Contributors Dr. Aaron Adams Michael Adno Sue Cocking Mike Conner Chris Hunt Alexandra Marvar Kris Millgate T. Edward Nickens Flip Pallot

Photography Cover: Marc Montocchio Dr. Aaron Adams Jenni Bennett Will Benson Dr. Ben Binder Dr. Jake Brownscombe Jessica Connell Riley Cummins Zaria Dean Sergio Diaz Jay Fleming Pat Ford Ed Glorioso Benedict Kim Justin Lewis Scott Lones Kellie Ralston Mark Rehbein Dave Reilly Robbie Roemer Dr. Mitchell Roffer Nick Roberts Elijah Sands Heather Templeton Ian Wilson

Cover

Anglers fish the flats of Tres Marias in Mexico’s Ascension Bay. Photo: Marc Montocchio

Bonefish & Tarpon Journal 2937 SW 27th Avenue Suite 203 Miami, FL 33133

(786) 618-9479

Bonefish & Tarpon Journal is printed on a sappi paper that is SFI® ≥20% Certified Forest Content and 10% recycled fiber.

BTT’s Mission To conserve and restore bonefish, tarpon and permit fisheries and habitats through research, stewardship, education and advocacy.

Board of Directors Officers Carl Navarre, Chairman of the Board, Islamorada, Florida Dan Berger, Vice Chairman of the Board, Key West, Florida Jim McDuffie, President and CEO, Miami, Florida Evan Carruthers, Treasurer, Maple Plain, Minnesota John D. Johns, Secretary, Birmingham, Alabama Tom Davidson, Founding Chairman Emeritus, Key Largo, Florida Harold Brewer, Chairman Emeritus, Key Largo, Florida Russ Fisher, Founding Vice Chairman Emeritus, Key Largo, Florida Bill Horn, Vice Chairman Emeritus, Marathon, Florida

John Abplanalp Stamford, Connecticut

Jerry Klauer New York, New York

Al Perkinson New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Rich Andrews Denver, Colorado

Dr. Michael Larkin St. Petersburg, Florida

Dr. Jennifer Rehage Miami, Florida

Stu Apte Tavernier, Florida

Thorpe McKenzie Chattanooga, Tennessee

Vaughn Roberts Nassau, Bahamas

Rodney Barreto Coral Gables, Florida

Wayne Meland Naples, Florida

Jay Robertson Islamorada, Florida

Adolphus A. Busch IV Ofallon, Missouri

Ambrose Monell New York, New York

Kris Rockwell Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

John Davidson Atlanta, Georgia

Sandy Moret Islamorada, Florida

Diana Rudolph Livingston, Montana

Ali Gentry Flota Richmond, Virginia

John Newman Covington, Louisiana

Rick Ruoff Willow Creek, Montana

Dr. Tom Frazer Tampa, Florida Jeff Harkavy Coral Springs, Florida

Tim O’Brien Harlingen, Texas

Adelaide Skoglund Key Largo, Florida

Clarke Ohrstrom The Plains, Virginia

Noah Valenstein Tallahassee, Florida

Doug Kilpatrick Summerland, Florida

Advisory Council Bob Branham, Plantation, Florida Paul Dixon, East Hampton, New York Chris Dorsey, Littleton, Colorado Chico Fernandez, Miami, Florida Mike Fitzgerald, Wexford, Pennsylvania Pat Ford, Miami, Florida

Christopher Jordan, McLean, Virginia Bill Klyn, Jackson, Wyoming Clint Packo, Littleton, Colorado Chris Peterson, Titusville, Florida Steve Reynolds, Memphis, Tennessee Bill Stroh, Miami, Florida

Upcoming Events 12th Annual Florida Keys Dinner & Circle of Honor Inductions April 10, 2025 Cheeca Lodge & Spa Islamorada, FL

14th Annual NYC Dinner & Awards Ceremony October 6, 2025 583 Park Avenue New York, NY

8th International BTT Science Symposium November 7-8, 2025 Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Marina Ft. Lauderdale, FL

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Features

10 Restoring Common Ground

28 Coming Full Circle

18 The Shark Problem

40 The Guiding Force

BTT is expanding its presence in Mexico through new partnerships with Ducks Unlimited and two of the nation’s most renowned fishing lodges. T. Edward Nickens

A groundbreaking study in the Florida Keys seeks to identify ways for sharks and anglers to coexist within a healthy flats fishery. Alexandra Marvar

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Capt. Tim Carlile and Dr. Roy Crabtree will be inducted into the BTT Circle of Honor at the 12th Annual Florida Keys Dinner. Mike Conner

BTT works closely with fishing guides to identify conservation threats, design research, and apply research results to management proposals. Michael Adno

BTT scientists study a bonefish pre-spawning aggregation in The Bahamas. Photo: Tom Henshilwood B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025

Updates & Reports Setting the Hook.......................................................................... 4 Welcome Aboard.......................................................................... 6 Tippets......................................................................................... 8 Bahamas Creek Restoration Projects.........................................24 Florida Keys Initiative Update....................................................32 Restoring the Indian River Lagoon.............................................36 Conservation Captain Q & A.......................................................48 BTT Events.................................................................................52 2024 Donor Roll.........................................................................58 Lefty’s Enduring Legacy by Flip Pallot.......................................68

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Setting the Hook From the Chairman and the President

R

estoring and conserving coastal habitats is an essential part of BTT’s mission. Simply put, if we lose habitats at scale, we will also certainly lose our fisheries.

Healthy habitats support healthy fisheries by providing areas for spawning, juvenile development, growth, feeding, and shelter. At the same time, habitats provide us with many other benefits, from clean water and protection from storms to the natural resources that support fishing, boating, and other recreation that enriches our lives.

The urgency of reversing habitat loss and degradation has never been greater. Population growth and development are accelerating impacts to a fragile seascape. Whether it’s in Florida or The Bahamas, Belize or Mexico, we can see the signs as we make the run out to our favorite flats. They are evident in the loss of mangroves, the construction of resorts, port facilities and mega yacht marinas, and in the new communities taking root along the water’s edge where none existed a few years ago.

BTT’s organizational strategy is to protect the best and restore the viable rest. To be successful in these efforts, our team is working diligently to identify and map the most critical fishery habitats across this hemisphere and then using the resulting information to engage with stakeholders. Government agencies in Florida are learning about the location and status of the state’s most valuable—and vulnerable—juvenile tarpon habitats. Their counterparts in The Bahamas are receiving information about the locations of important bonefish habitats along with the science-based recommendations to conserve them. These include the 11 bonefish pre-spawning aggregation sites documented thus far by BTT and local fishing guides.

BTT recently joined with the Belize Flats Fishery Association to successfully turn back an ill-advised plan to build a resort at Angelfish Caye, which holds prime bonefish and permit habitat.

This followed a similar effort a few years ago to prevent the same fate at Blackadore Caye, a flats-fishing hotspot located within the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. At this writing, we are monitoring multiple other projects in Belize and The Bahamas and engaging with governments and developers to mitigate their likely impacts to flats fishery habitats.

In those places where habitats have already been impacted, BTT is implementing remarkable science-based restoration programs. This work can be seen in the completed restoration of Coral Creek near Punta Gorda, Forida, the ongoing planning to restore more than 1,000 acres at Rookery Bay, in Collier County, Florida, and the recently launched assessment of six additional wetland areas upstream from the world-class Boca Grande tarpon fishery. Across the peninsula on the Atlantic Coast, BTT is joining with a large and diverse group of partners who are working to restore the Indian River Lagoon. Kris Millgate explains in her article, “Restoring the Indian River Lagoon,” how these efforts, backed by historic levels of state and federal funding, are beginning to see results, including the return of seagrass in places it hasn’t existed in a decade or more.

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Carl Navarre, Chairman

Jim McDuffie, President

There are even more restoration projects unfolding in the other countries where BTT works.

In The Bahamas, we are advancing our creek restoration initiative with an ambitious set of new projects. Last spring, BTT and the Bahamian Ministry of Works signed a new Memorandum of Agreement to collaborate on two creek restoration projects on Grand Bahama Island. These projects will entail the complete removal of manmade causeways that have blocked Snapper Creek and West Gap Creek for decades. You can learn more about these projects in Sue Cocking’s article, “Back in the Flow,” as well as read about the milestone planting of 100,000 mangroves, which BTT and our Bahamian partners celebrated in December.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, BTT is collaborating in new work that extends our focus of healthy habitats deeper into the international geography of flats fishing. In this issue of the Journal, T. Edward Nickens tells the story of “Restoring Common Ground,” a powerful new partnership between BTT and Ducks Unlimited to restore wetlands in a region of the Yucatán near Celestún. Guided by an agreement signed last May at DU’s International Convention, our two organizations will work together to restore hydrology in this coastal community, thereby reversing the impacts of past development and facilitating the natural return of mangroves. Success in this endeavor will provide more and better habitat for ducks—and juvenile tarpon and snook.

At the other end of the country, you will find another new partnership. BTT and the owners of the legendary lodges Casa Blanca and Playa Blanca are collaborating to conduct research aimed at understanding fish movements and habitat uses in Ascension Bay and beyond. The resulting information will be used to inform future conservation action and improve fishery management.

Of course, none of this work and the progress it represents would be possible without the support of fishing guides, who have been BTT’s trusted partners since our founding more than 25 years ago. As Michael Adno details in his piece, “The Guiding Force,” the close working relationship between BTT and the guide community has led to lasting conservation outcomes, all to ensure a sustainable flats fishery now and for future generations.

As you read in this issue about the strides we’ve made together to conserve and restore the habitats that sustain the flats fishery, we hope you’ll be inspired to become even more engaged in BTT’s mission. Conservation is truly a team effort, and we thank you, as always, for your support and advocacy on behalf of the fishery we love.

SOME SOUVENIRS DON’T FIT IN YOUR CARRY-ON.

The best keepsakes aren’t the ones you can hold — they’re the ones that hold onto you.

They live in the loops of perfect presentations, the echoes of laughter shared with strangers turned friends, the rush of connection when wild places remind you of who you really are.

Meaningful people, places, and moments can’t be packed away — but isn’t that the point?

You get one life. Fish it Well.

B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025

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Welcome Aboard

BTT Welcomes Three New Board Members

Tim O’Brien

T

im O’Brien, Clarke Ohrstrom, and Kris Rockwell have joined Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s Board of Directors.

“Success in our mission depends on the leadership of a great board,” said Jim McDuffie, BTT President and CEO. “We are grateful to Tim, Clarke, and Chris for their commitment to flats conservation and generosity in sharing their leadership and expertise with us.”

O’Brien is President and CEO of Reveille Trucking, based in Harlingen, Texas, and previously served on the BTT Advisory Council. He was born and raised in South Texas along the Mexican border, and in his early years worked as both a hunting and flyfishing guide. His family has a strong connection to hunting and fishing, having operated multiple lodges throughout Mexico and South Africa. After fishing extensively throughout the Mexican Yucatán, Belize, and Central America, O’Brien now spends most of his time in the Florida Keys, where he regularly participates in the bonefish and tarpon fishing tournaments.

“I am honored to be a part of such a science-based, conservation-focused organization,” said O’Brien. “My passion for fly-fishing and the outdoors drives me to promote conservation for the fish and habitats I love deeply.”

Ohrstrom is the founder and owner of Fauquier’s Finest, a protein processing plant in Bealeton, Virginia. He is also the CEO of the Whitewood Farm mitigation bank, Northern Virginia’s largest wetlands and riparian bank. An avid angler and hunter, Clarke is an active board member of The Founding Fish Network, The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and The

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Clarke Ohrstrom

Kris Rockwell

National Sporting Library. He has been a major supporter of BTT’s mangrove and creek restoration projects in The Bahamas. He lives in The Plains, Virginia, with his wife and dogs.

“I have a deep appreciation for the outdoors and all things aquatic,” said Ohrstrom. “I believe we must do everything we can to preserve and restore what is left of our aquatic communities. I am particularly concerned about the organisms at the bottom of the food chain; without them the fish that we revere will not be able to prosper. I am thrilled to join BTT as it does an incredible job of melding science and advocacy in the world of aquatic conservation.”

A longtime BTT member, Rockwell has generously supported Bahamas mangrove and creek restoration projects, and is actively engaged in BTT’s International Science Symposium and annual NYC Dinner & Awards Ceremony. Along with his current position as President and Trustee for the S. Kent Rockwell Foundation, he also serves on the board of The Kiski School, Trout Unlimited Headwaters, National Deer Association, and the Minority Outdoor Alliance.

“I am honored and excited to have been asked to join the BTT board,” said Rockwell. “I greatly appreciate that the work is strongly backed by science and look forward to contributing to the advancement of the conservation programs that Bonefish & Tarpon Trust creates. I believe that it is through the work of BTT that we will protect the habitats, species, and surrounding wildlife that we all value so very much, and I intend to support that work in every way that I can.”

SEE WHAT’S OUT THERE We believe crafting the highest quality sunglasses doesn’t mean taking advantage of the world around us. We work just as hard to protect our waterways and fisheries as we do to embrace them.

B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025 © 2025 Costa Del Mar, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Tippets

Short Takes on Important Topics

“The Florida Boat” is a Floyd Skiff Co. 7WT Side Console designed with precision for flats fishing. Photo: Floyd Skiff Co.

BTT Florida Keys Initiative Director Dr. Ross Boucek and BTT Research Associate Sarah Hamlyn sample a jack crevalle. Photo: Florida FWC

BTT AWARDED $1.75 MILLION BY FLORIDA FWC TO RESEARCH “SPINNING FISH” PHENOMENON Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and several partners are collaborating on new research to address a suspected toxin affecting multiple Florida Keys fish species with abnormal “spinning” behaviors.

The inter-institutional study is funded by $1.75 million that was awarded to BTT by the State of Florida through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to research the scale and scope of the ongoing mortality and disease event in Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay, and the Florida Keys. Specifically, the funds will support data collection and analysis, and employ local fishing guides to assist with sampling efforts.

BTT and the Lower Keys Guides Association (LKGA) received the first report of fish in the Florida Keys exhibiting abnormal, spinning behavior in early October 2023. Fish with the “spins” experience loss of equilibrium, causing them to swim upside down in repeated circles, often following a stressful or stimulating event. In response, an ongoing, inter-institutional research study to identify the cause of these symptoms was launched in January 2024. Partners include BTT, LKGA, Florida Gulf Coast University, University of South Alabama, Florida International University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and FWC. To date, more than 60 species have exhibited these abnormal behaviors, including smalltooth sawfish, silver mullet, tarpon, permit, snook, bonefish, jack crevalle, southern stingray, mutton snapper, mangrove snapper, cubera snapper, redfish, and lemon shark. BTT continues to work closely with over 180 professional fishing guides and captains across the Florida Keys to track the spread and intensity of the spinning fish phenomenon through a Rapid Response Network launched in April 2024. Local fishing guides are also supporting BTT through routine research trips to survey conditions in inshore waters and collect needed samples to better understand this phenomenon. To learn more, visit: www.BTT.org/spinning-fish.

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MARC HELMICK WINS 2024 BTT BOAT SWEEPSTAKES Congratulations to Marc Helmick of Jacksonville, Florida, the winner of the 2024 BTT Florida Boat Sweepstakes, benefiting BTT’s science-based conservation work throughout the Sunshine State. This special promotion was the product of close collaboration between Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, Floyd Skiff Co., and other industry partners. It raised awareness of the threats impacting Florida’s recreational fisheries and BTT’s efforts to address them through its Win Back Our Water campaign. BTT thanks everyone who participated in The Florida Boat Sweepstakes, especially Floyd Skiff Co. and our industry partners who created a remarkable prize package: Costa, Magic Tilt Trailers, Marquesa Marine, Raymarine, Sage Fly Fishing, SeaDek, Simms Fishing Products, Unmatched Marine, Yamaha Rightwaters, and YETI. Learn more at: www.BTT.org/winbackourwater.

Fishing guides protest the proposed development at Angelfish Caye near Placencia, Belize. Photo: Benedict Kim

ANGELFISH CAYE SPARED FROM DEVELOPMENT Bonefish & Tarpon Trust joins the Belize Flats Fishery Association (BFFA) in celebrating a hard-fought victory for Angelfish Caye. Thanks to the hard work of many dedicated people, this ecologically and economically important area will be acquired by the Government of Belize for conservation. BTT applauds the leadership of the BFFA, the many stakeholders who raised their voices at public rallies, and the responsible actions taken by government officials to protect Angelfish Caye, also known as Will Bauer Flats, from a proposed development that would have destroyed vital mangrove, seagrass, and coral reef areas.

BTT ADVOCATES FOR EVERGLADES RESTORATION AND WATER QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS BTT continues to work broadly on water quality issues in Florida, from supporting historic appropriations for Everglades restoration to launching the Win Back Our Water campaign to raise awareness of the threats to our state’s waterways. In the 2024 Florida legislative session, BTT successfully advocated for robust funding for Florida’s natural resources. Notably, BTT helped to secure $850 million for Everglades restoration and $535 million for targeted water quality improvements aimed at achieving nutrient reductions in key waterways. Additionally, Congress approved $425 million in Everglades funding for fiscal year 2024, and $444 million has been requested by the Biden administration for fiscal year 2025.

BTT also supported passage of the federal Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (WRDA) and the inclusion in this act of water storage north of Lake Okeechobee (LOCAR). BTT’s efforts on LOCAR received public recognition from the South Florida Water Management District. The Western Everglades Restoration Plan, which will improve sheet-flow west of Lake Okeechobee was also authorized. Both projects are now eligible for federal funding and will undergo further refinement prior to construction.

Left to right: BTT Board Member Noah Valenstein; FWC Executive Director Roger Young; Jonisha Cartwright of The Nature Conservancy, who, with WildAid, sponsored BahWEN Force Chief Petty Officer and Chief Training Officer Deann Davis; BahWEN officer Lieutenant Commander Desiree Corneille (center) and BTT-sponsored Senior Lieutenant and BahWEN Lead Designate Assistant Danielle Morley; FWC Colonel Brian Smith; BTT VP of Conservation & Public Policy Kellie Ralston; and Greg Casad of WildAid.

LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING FOR BAHAMIAN OFFICERS FACILITATED BY BTT Enforcement of fish and wildlife regulations is a critical part of conservation. Bonefish & Tarpon Trust recently supported the participation of Bahamas Wildlife Enforcement Network (BahWEN) in a globally recognized law enforcement training program administered by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Senior Lieutenant Danielle Morley and Force Chief Petty Officer Deann Davis, both on loan from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, are members of the BahWEN Steering Committee and Core Team, a multi-agency task force aimed at safeguarding The Bahamas’ environment and natural resources and standing up the Bahamas Wildlife Enforcement Network. Pending final legislation, BahWEN will be the nation’s primary body for the enforcement of environmental, wildlife and natural resource laws. Morley’s training was financially supported by BTT, and the training for Davis, who serves as BahWEN’s Chief Training Instructor, was financially supported by The Nature Conservancy. BTT’s ongoing support for BahWEN underscores BTT’s dedication to the protection of The Bahamas’ ecosystems.

NARRATED BY

FLIP PALLOT DIRECTED BY

J AY N I C H O L S

APRIL 19, 2025 6PM EST

APRIL 24, 2025 7PM EST

A FILM BY

IN ASSOCIATION WI

TH

PRESENTED BY

LEFTY KREH FILM PREMIERES Lefty Kreh wasn’t just the greatest fisherman of all time—he was a mentor to generations of experts, he influenced the course of the sport of fly-fishing, and most importantly he was a friend to tens of thousands. For many decades, he traveled the country, dazzling crowds with his casting and stories of far-away adventures, and he always had time to shake hands, share a joke, or dispense personal instruction. There never was, and never will be anyone like him.

Lefty is the story of Bernard “Lefty” Kreh’s life, from his humble upbringing during the Great Depression, to his service in the U.S. Army in the Battle of the Bulge, and his role as fly-fishing’s greatest ambassador. He ushered fly-fishing into the modern era, from a time of bamboo rods and dry-fly fishing for trout, into a global sport where you can chase tarpon in Florida, black bass in New Guinea, and bonefish in The Bahamas. He took casting away from the metronome and hands of the clock and made it fluid and athletic.

He did it all with a laugh and a smile, and heaps of practical advice on how to tie better knots, cast more efficiently, and use the most effective flies and presentations. Today, years after his passing, dozens and dozens of experts consider Lefty their most important mentor and influence. BTT’s prestigious Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation is named in honor of Lefty, the award’s first recipient and a Founding Member of BTT. The film is narrated by Flip Pallot—one of Lefty’s closest friends— and contains never-before-seen interviews with Lefty, captured by cinematographer Jay Nichols in the months before Lefty passed in March 2018. It includes archival footage from the original BTTsponsored TV show Buccaneers & Bones, new interviews from peers like Johnny Morris and Ed Jaworowski, and commentary from Lefty’s friends, Blane Chocklett, Barry Beck, Heather Templeton, and many others. The film is directed and created by Jay Nichols of Headwater Media Group and produced by Fly Fisherman magazine with support from Bass Pro Shops, Costa, YETI, and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.

The film premiered on March 27 at the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick, Maryland, with all event proceeds benefiting BTT. Originally known as the Tivoli Theatre, this is where Lefty met his future wife Evelyn. While he was working at Fort Detrick in Frederick, he went to the movies, and she was working at the ticket window.

The rest is history.

The 44-minute film will have a television premiere on Outdoor Channel on April 19 at 6 p.m. and on World Fishing Network on April 24 at 7 p.m. Visit the channels’ websites for a complete schedule of airtimes.

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Restoring Common Ground Bonefish & Tarpon Trust is expanding its presence in Mexico through new partnerships with Ducks Unlimited and two of the nation’s most renowned fishing lodges.

BY T. EDWARD NICKENS

T

he road runs along the Gulf of Mexico, north of Campeche along the Yucatán Peninsula, where the Riá Celestún Biosphere Reserve cloaks one of the wildest and most remote shorelines in Mexico. Here, migrating blue-winged teal—many fresh from the U.S.—rub feathered shoulders with crested guans, bare-throated tiger herons, and American pygmy kingfishers. And juvenile tarpon and snook haunt the dendritic creeks that wind through forests of red, black, white, and buttonwood mangroves.

Until they reach that road. Built some four decades ago outside the tiny town of Isla Arena, the road arrows across the mangrove flats with little discretion. Its asphalt lies atop a tall embankment, which acts as an accidental dam for the estuarine waters of the reserve. Culverts were constructed under the road, but with little accommodation to how they might impact the natural hydrology of the area. The life-giving exchange of fresh water and salt water, critical to mangroves, was stymied.

All along the road, dead tangled brush has fallen into natural

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channels. Creeks and drains are choked with silt. In a region still wild and remote, the one road illustrates the devasting impacts of ill-considered infrastructure.

But in a curious twist, this road along the Yucatán Peninsula has also helped bring together two conservation organizations whose primary missions have found an inspiring confluence. The northern Yucatán is 500 miles from the bonefish flats of the Florida Keys, and farther still from the rice fields of Texas and Arkansas duck hunting country. But the connections between waterfowl and flats fishes are driving new efforts by Bonefish & Tarpon Trust to conserve habitats in Mexico, and spawning new research to detail how this critical region in the Gulf of Mexico is connected to healthy populations of fish and fowl far beyond the Yucatán.

BTT has recently embarked on two new initiatives, encompassing both the western and eastern coasts of the Yucatán Peninsula. In June of 2024, BTT, Ducks Unlimited (DU), and Ducks Unlimited Mexico (DUMAC) signed a three-year

Casa Blanca lodge on Ascension Bay. Photo: Marc Montocchio

memorandum of understanding to partner on mangrove restoration projects along the western Yucatán coast. Following that agreement, BTT sent staff to Mexico to scope out ways the organizations can work together.

On the other side of the peninsula, where some of the most revered flats fisheries in the world attract anglers to remote outposts such as Punta Allen, BTT is taking a different approach. In September of 2024, BTT signed a formal partnership with two of the region’s best-known fly-fishing lodges to bring science to the early efforts to learn more about fisheries in a world-renowned angling destination. Two sister lodges, Casa Blanca and Playa Blanca, sit on a 25-mile-long private island astride Ascension Bay and Espiritu Santo Bay. The lodges work the waters of the 1.3-million-acre Sian Ka’an International Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in the Mexican Caribbean. Anglers from around the world arrive to chase permit, tarpon, and bonefish. Giant flocks of frigatebirds crash on bait pushed up by giant schools of jack crevalle, and

snook hunt the edges of mangrove islands locals call petenes.

The region’s remote location has long stymied development, but explosive growth in and around the gateway community of Tulum, just a couple of hours south of Cancún, has paired with increasing fishing pressure to raise concerns about the flats fisheries.

Together, the two projects comprise an expansion of BTT’s presence in the region. The hope is that the power of partnerships will leverage the capabilities of some of the most impactful conservation groups in the Western Hemisphere.

DUCK, DUCK, TARPON

The Yucatán Peninsula juts northward like a thumb into the Gulf of Mexico, its coastline protecting long, serpentine lagoons that lie inside barrier beaches. The lagoons are interspersed with open water and mangroves, stands of cattails, and beds of wigeon grass, shoal grass, and turtle grass. It’s a welcome refuge for wildlife, home to 271 species of birds, plus panther, jaguar, and ocelot.

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Education about restoration projects is an important part of the process.

Photo: Kellie Ralston

And a trove of migrating birds. “At least 80 percent of all migratory birds that fly to Mexico and overwinter will use habitats related to mangrove swamps,” points out Eduardo Carrera, CEO for Ducks Unlimited Mexico (DUMAC). One of the most common is the blue-winged teal, a staple of hunting blinds along the Texas Gulf Coast. “We are working to conserve and restore mangrove areas for their historical and natural values, one of which is preferred habitat for many waterfowl and other bird species,” Carrera says. “BTT is trying to preserve mangrove ecosystems in order to guarantee the long-term conservation of tarpon and other fish species. It’s an excellent example of two organizations finding ways to complement their mission work. There is so much common ground.”

When Kellie Ralston, BTT Vice President for Conservation and Public Policy, visited the region in early 2024 through DU’s Mangrove Experience program, she was struck by the opportunities to make nearly immediate and significant improvements in habitat. DUMAC had already been working to restore freshwater flow connections, and the straightforward approaches were making a difference. “Just by reopening a ditch to get water flowing again,” she says, “the habitat goes from no mangroves to mangroves everywhere.” Reconnecting the natural plumbing allowed upstream mangroves to seed the barren flats along the estuary edge, and opened up passage for fish to return to their native spawning grounds. As she watched tarpon pushing up the newly opened channels, she realized that “those were the same habitats where ducks overwinter and get fat and healthy so they can fly north to produce more ducks. We had to figure out a way to get involved.”

The intersection of waterfowl and fisheries conservation is a fertile connection for BTT and DU, even far from the Yucatán.

Juvenile tarpon in Florida move through a mix of natural creeks, drainage and irrigation ditches, and navigation canals to travel miles inland, far from the coast. In the South Carolina Lowcountry and along the southeastern North Carolina coast, young tarpon are known to access historic rice impoundments that now are managed specifically for waterfowl. These Mexico initiatives build on areas of common ground. “By restoring the hydrology to provide more and better habitat for ducks, we do the same 14

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Flamingos feed on a mud flat that is deteriorating because of mangrove die-off from lack of water flow. Photo: Kellie Ralston

for juvenile tarpon and snook across the region,” says Dr. Aaron Adams, Director of Science and Conservation for BTT. “This is a perfect collaboration in that to the experience and knowledge base of DU with its more terrestrial approach, we add our deep understanding of tarpon and snook biology and the cultural and recreational values they bring to the landscape.”

DU’s and DUMAC’s overall approach to conservation also seemed like a natural fit. In the 1930s, DU began its stakeholderbased approach to conservation: If you have good habitat, you’ll have good populations of target species. While BTT takes a similar stakeholder approach to fisheries, most fisheries management initiatives are only beginning to consider other values that impact fisheries. “Most fisheries management is based on stock assessments,” Adams says, “but don’t integrate habitat and water quality issues into the management of their vision.”

And the benefits go beyond the habitats. According to a 2020 The restoration project will benefit juvenile tarpon and snook.

Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

Ascension Bay is home to a robust population of permit. Photo: Marc Montocchio

census, the village of Isla Arena had 978 residents, nearly half of which were women. With many of the region’s men involved in commercial fishing activities, Isla Arena’s women provided much of the labor for DUMAC’s groundbreaking efforts to clear debris and open up waterways along the raised road bed. Not only did the work provide needed employment—61 percent of women in the project reported that the work accounted for nearly one-half of their family sustenance, with 13 percent saying it was the sole means of income—but the hands-on efforts underscored the value of stewardship in the region. “The community buy-in on the restoration work was significant,” says Ralston. “Given all the connections—the habitat, the fisheries, the impact of conservation work on the local economy—this collaboration was a no-brainer for us.”

A bonus is that there will be local positive impacts as well, since the project area is toward the northern end of the mangrove wetland system that supports the recreational fishery for juvenile tarpon based out of Campeche.

And it’s not the only example of a joint project that can

change an entire region’s relationship to the natural resources on which it depends.

THE ANGLING EFFECT

On the other side of the Yucatán Peninsula, in a region better known to flats anglers, BTT’s recently inked agreements with the Casa Blanca and Playa Blanca lodges is a perfect example of how BTT is exporting its approach to science-based conservation.

Whereas many of the issues facing flats fisheries along the more human-impacted landscapes of the Yucatán are as obvious as a soaring road across the mangroves, challenges to fisheries conservation in more remote areas such as the Sian Ka’an are more subtle and insidious.

The mere footprint of such a large protected area can lend a false sense of security for conservation interests, says Jim McDuffie, BTT President and CEO, but inside such little-traveled reserves it is difficult to know the impact of illegal fishing and what role, if any, mortality associated with catch-and-release fishing might play in local gamefish populations. But the biggest

Guests of Casa Blanca lodge fish the flats of Ascension Bay. Photo: Marc Montocchio

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threat comes if bonefish, tarpon, or permit within the Sian Ka’an Reserve migrate out of the reserve, to spawn for example. Once out of the reserve, the fish are unprotected from harvest. And as BTT research has shown, the most remote flats in the hemisphere are connected to distant waters by fish whose migration patterns are only recently coming to light. Earlier BTT research on bonefish genetics and the mechanics of ocean currents showed that some bonefish larvae spawned in the Yucatán can drift to the Florida Keys under certain conditions, findings that helped fuel BTT’s interest in the region.

At Casa Blanca and Playa Blanca, the partnership with BTT is evident from the ground up, says general manager Juan Carlos Rodriguez Bush. The fishery itself is “incredible,” he says. “You can see schools of 400 permit, and massive tarpon. But it is very important to communicate to the world that this is not only a business, but is a way to invest in conservation.” Profits from the lodges are poured into conservation initiatives. Lodge staff are remodeling a building for use as a research laboratory, offices, and sleeping quarters for visiting scientists. Plans are underway this year to convert the entire island from fossil fuels to solar-powered energy, Bush says. And the growing relationship with BTT will allow the lodges to tap into its proven models that pair recreational fishing and guiding with science.

A looming challenge for fisheries in the region is a stark lack of understanding about basic fish ecology. Habitat use, fish movements, where tarpon and permit and bonefish spawn, where migration routes are located—there is “very little data on any of this,” says Adams. “Our big-picture goal is to work with the lodges to build that foundation as a first step toward comprehensive conservation.” Inside the bay, fish populations are protected by the

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covenants of the reserve. But enforcement is nil. And fish that leave the protected zones—bonefish in pre-spawning aggregations, tarpon on annual migrations—are a total wild card.

The good news is that such a dearth of information means that useful work can commence immediately. Under the agreement, BTT will work with lodge operators, guides, and anglers on better fish handling practices to minimize the impacts of recreational fishing. Plans are underway to train guides on fish tagging procedures, to widen the footprint of the growing database of flats fish movements across the hemisphere. “We are in just the first steps in what we hope is a considerably larger collaboration,” Adams said. “We’re laying out the framework. The next steps are to put boots on the ground.”

That’s a prospect that makes these new collaborations so exciting. Where there are few knowns, this is great opportunity for progress. And what is most important is already known, says McDuffie. Flats fisheries in Mexico, in Florida, along the Gulf Coast, and north into the Mid-Atlantic states don’t exist like they are an aquarium in some marine park. “They are all part of a larger, connected fishery,” he says. “We are learning now that these connections are more important than ever imagined. Wherever we fish across the region, it’s clear that we have to look over the horizon and be mindful of what is happening in places like the Yucatán in Mexico.”

And be mindful that successful conservation on such a scale will take as many like-minded partners as BTT can find.

An award-winning author and journalist, T. Edward Nickens is editor-at-large of Field & Stream and a contributing editor for Garden & Gun and Audubon magazine.

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Sharks: The Conservation Success Story With a Catch As Florida’s once-scant shark population rebounds, the rate of shark-angler interactions is on the rise, bringing scientists and anglers together to find solutions.

BY ALEXANDRA MARVAR

S

harks and humans have a surprising number of things in common: Intelligence. Memory. Unique personalities.

The ability to learn from one another. And a great love of fishing for redfish and snook in some of Florida’s most beloved fishing destinations.

In Florida, shark populations have rebounded from dire lows in recent years, and the number of anglers on the water continues to rise, too. So it’s no wonder that, in places like Florida Bay, sharks and humans are running into each other a lot more frequently— and experiencing some friction as they battle it out over who gets the fish on the line.

For Dr. José E. Trujillo, BTT’s new self-described “shark guy,” finding a solution that promotes both a healthy, balanced natural

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ecosystem and healthy sport fisheries involves understanding shark behavior—and that’s riveting stuff.

“Many people think of sharks as hunting machines,” Trujillo says. “They’re actually more fascinating than that. They’re really super smart. They have great memory. And there’s so much we don’t know about them.”

Trujillo earned his PhD in marine science doing field research in Fiji and French Polynesia, studying shark nurseries (safe habitats for young sharks) and anti-predator escape responses.

Now, he’s working as a BTT postdoctoral researcher with Florida Keys Initiative Director Dr. Ross Boucek on BTT’s three-year Shark Depredation Project.

In phase one of the project, Trujillo says, the team has learned

A lemon shark predates on a bonefish. Photo: Jay Fleming

that lemon and bull sharks, in particular, have been training in a ‘UNFISHABLE’ sort of Pavlovian experiment.

Dr. Boucek has had his eye on the shark depredation “Kleptoparasitism is basically when a predator steals problem. “I remember in 2015, I was mapping snook spawning food from another predator,” Trujillo explains. “Humans go aggregations north of Florida Bay,” Boucek says. “Every fish we out and hunt their prey—catch a fish.” A shark might see an hooked got eaten by a shark. I realized this was no longer a place opportunity—a struggling fish—and score an easy meal. From that could be sustainably fished.” there, Trujillo says, sharks are smart enough to ask: “What cues At the outset of the Shark Depredation Project, the project can help me find these opportunities?” Sharks might be learning team ran surveys, focus groups, and more to draw invaluable to seek out the sounds of certain boats, the commotion of fish insight from Florida guides and anglers: “Where is this conflict struggling on a fishing line, the scent of bait in the water. Through most intense? What shark species are involved? When did it associative learning, they’ve learned to link these stimuli with a start?” Boucek says. So far, these insights have helped BTT reward: a delicious meal that costs them less energy than hunting pinpoint depredation hotspots, identify the most problematic on their own.” species, thetarpon, conflict’s BTT is working with resource managers in Belize to conserveshark essential habitatand for track bonefish, andevolution. permit. Photo: Jess McGlothlin B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025

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A blacktip shark hunts on a flat in the Florida Keys. Photo: Ian Wilson

THE SHARK CONSERVATION CATCH

Angler-shark interactions have risen dramatically in recent years.

Photo: Pat Ford

First, they confirmed that the issue is widespread and has intensified in the last decade, with the team finding that nearly 98 percent of surveyed fishers have experienced shark depredation incidents. Findings also pointed to Florida Bay as a hotspot for shark-angler interactions, with immature lemon sharks (four to six feet long) identified as the main culprits, and redfish and snook as the primary targets.

Post-COVID, the conflict seemed to surge, making some areas “unfishable,” Boucek says. That isn’t just a problem for humans, he adds: It puts additional stress on species already vulnerable to overfishing, habitat loss, and climate change.

“The snook and redfish fishery is a year-round fishery,” Boucek says. “You can do it in bad weather, you can do it in good weather, cold, hot—doesn’t really matter. So, it’s not as sexy as the tarpon fishery, but man, it’s like the lifeblood of the industry for the Upper Keys regions. Though it’s in a relatively localized area, this issue has disproportionate effects in the fishing community. Addressing it is a big deal.”

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Some have called for addressing the issue through, simply, population control of certain species. Unfortunately, scientists understand that killing off sharks might not solve the problem— while creating another problem in the process.

Florida’s visibly larger shark population may seem like the crux of the issue. But these thriving populations are a national point of pride. Florida is a world leader in shark conservation, with no-kill policies for lemon, tiger, white, and hammerhead sharks. So, while sharks in Florida’s waters seem plentiful, numbers worldwide are a different story: Studies show the global population of oceanic sharks and rays has declined by 71 percent since 1970. Yet, these apex predators are vital players in a healthy, balanced marine ecosystem.

This conservation success story is getting a bad rap, largely because when shark populations did start to make a return, they were coming back to, as Trujillo explains, “a completely different environment” with “less habitat and less food” and more people fishing. Seagrass die-offs in Florida Bay mean less prey to go around, not to mention the impacts from the degradation of the Keys’ coral reefs. Factors like residential development, water contamination, and mangrove depletion mean less habitat. And rising ocean temperatures are altering the distribution of sharks and their prey, leading to more frequent encounters in the spots anglers love.

“All those combinations create the perfect environment for the emergence of this behavior,” Trujillo says—and this conflict.

So, the Depredation Project’s next phase will tackle this question of quantity: Are there too many sharks—so many that there isn’t enough prey to go around? Or are guides and anglers just up against a would-be-manageable quantity of sharks who’ve become habituated, or as Boucek puts it, like “dumpster bears”— who’ve simply learned too much, too fast, about how to snag the easiest meal?

To test this, the research team is tagging lemon sharks to track their movements and identify if certain sharks are repeatedly interacting with anglers. Brightly colored visual IDs will help BTT understand, according to Trujillo, how many times a single shark interacts with anglers. Does every shark behave this way, or is it just a small percentage of sharks who’ve learned to associate boats with freebies?

“With the resulting data, BTT can then work with resource managers and anglers to deploy science-based solutions to mitigate shark depredation in the Keys,” says Boucek. “The

ultimate goal of the project is to identify ways for sharks and anglers to coexist within a healthy flats fishery.”

TWO TO TANGO

Another complicating factor in shark depredation is that the problem isn’t the sharks alone: It’s the combination of sharks and anglers.

Captain Richard Black is a Keys born-and-raised guide who leads charters out of Islamorada with his company Blackfly Charters. He’s seen how anglers can take steps to give the fish a competitive edge.

“In places people aren’t fishing at all, if there’s redfish, snook, whatever, we’re watching sharks pack-hunting,” he says. “They’re targeting these schools of fish and running through them.” At the same time, there are more anglers in Florida than any other state.

And when an angler catches a fish, it’s more vulnerable to shark depredation while on the line, and vulnerable again as it gets its bearings after being released. While BTT gathers data to better understand how to stop sharks from eating the fish, Black says guides and tournament organizers are introducing better ways for anglers to give the fish a better fighting chance.

For example, the two-day Herman Lucerne Memorial in Everglades National Park implemented new rules this year, including not measuring snook, tarpon, and bonefish.

“Basically, a picture in the water is good, and de-hook, and you don’t have to put them on a measuring board, spend extra time, or anything else,” Black says of the new rules. This is helpful because less handling means the fish is in better shape when released.

Other tournaments, like the Fall All-Tackle in Islamorada, introduced innovative methods to weigh fish without handling them, using digital weight scales and uniform, coated nets.

“You weigh the fish in the net, so the fish is fully supported,” he explains. “You’re videoing the whole time. You’re never actually touching the fish at all.”

The changes were well-received—by both anglers and catch, Black says. “That seemed to make a really big difference for those fish. They were swimming off better,” he recalls. “And everybody, in general, got pretty accurate weight measurements and was happy with it.”

He’s also adjusted his fishing practices, avoiding sharky

areas to protect targeted species. “During the summer, when sharks are most active, I spend a lot of time fishing for things other than snook and tarpon and redfish,” he says. “In the heat of the summer, maybe I spend a little more time bonefishing and permit fishing, because we don’t have the shark issues as much doing that.”

Rotating where he fishes could also help prevent sharks from learning to associate his boat with a meal ticket. “With any fisheries management, it’s a crawling pace at best,” he says. “I don’t see anything really happening overnight. We have to keep the topic in the forefront of everybody’s vision.”

SMARTER SHARK POLICY

As the research progresses, BTT Vice President for Conservation and Public Policy Kellie Ralston is looking at policies that could help accelerate positive change.

“The management process in general for sharks is really complicated,” Ralston says. “Some species that are protected at the federal level are not protected at state level.” But, on the policy front, there is one bill she says has great potential to move the ball: the SHARKED Act (Supporting the Health of Aquatic Systems through Research, Knowledge, and Enhanced Dialogue).

It’s a major milestone in building the knowledge base required to balance the needs of anglers, conservationists, and sharks at the federal level, Ralston says. Passed by the House in January 2025 with bipartisan support, it has yet to be introduced in the Senate. It would establish a task force of fisheries managers and shark experts to coordinate research, facilitate education, and develop strategies to limit shark depredation.

Balancing conservation with commercial interests adds another layer of complexity to shark policy. In recent years, legislation to ban the sale of shark fins—legally harvested or otherwise—has exacerbated challenges for fisheries. “That is the most valuable part of the shark, and they’re no longer able to sell it,” Ralston says. While the intention was to curb illegal finning practices, the ban unintentionally hindered legal, sustainable shark harvesting efforts.

Is this driving shark-angler interactions? “We need a better understanding of the scale and scope of the depredation issue,” she says. That’s what the Shark Depredation Project is tackling now. In the meantime, the public can get involved, Ralston adds: An angler in the Florida Keys encounters a shark on the flats. Photo: Will Benson

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A bonefish lost to a shark in the Florida Keys. Photo: Riley Cummins

Reporting sightings and incidents to organizations like BTT and/ or state agencies like Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) helps build a clearer picture of the problem, she says.

LOOKING AHEAD

Boucek adds another policy change that he sees as a possibility down the line, depending on the data. If BTT and partners find through research that shark populations are in fact more abundant in the Keys than in other places along the U.S. coast, it could open potential management relaxations to provide more fishing opportunities. “We have an opportunity here,” he says. “We have an abundant resource of big animals that people like to see. Integrating shark fishing into people’s routines could be an exciting thing. If we make a cool catch-and-release fishery out of it, this could be a benefit.”

BTT is also looking into deterrent technologies like the Shark Shield—a device that creates an electromagnetic field to overstimulate sharks’ sensory organs, encouraging them to leave the area. It’s got potential, but so far, it’s cost-prohibitive, Trujillo says. “If every guide has to buy one,” he notes, “you don’t solve the conflict.”

In the immediate future, Trujillo and Boucek will be out on the water with BTT colleagues, guides, and other partners, executing phase two. “We’re tagging these lemon sharks with colored tags for visual identification, and we’re going to need a lot of help,” Boucek says. Data from tracking and tagging efforts will not only improve population estimates but also give the scientists a clearer picture of the problem.

Meanwhile, for anglers, guides, and the general public, supporting policy like the SHARKED Act and adopting and evolving fishing practices to give fish the fighting chance they need are steps in the right direction.

“While management and conservation catch up to this conflict, it’s really important that we do our best to keep the fish alive,” Boucek says. Use heavy tackle, move on from areas where fish are being eaten, and advocate for policy changes to integrate shark fishing into the routine. “This will take time,” he adds. “We need to be patient and adapt.”

Alexandra Marvar is a freelance journalist based in Savannah, Georgia. Her writing can be found in The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine and elsewhere.

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A hammerhead shark predates on a tarpon. Photo: Jenni Bennett

WHAT CAN YOU DO? BTT is advocating for immediate action to reduce sharkangler interactions. What can guides, anglers, and BTT community members do to take a bite out of the problem?

Help give Florida’s sportfish a fighting chance • Use heavy tackle to shorten fight times • Avoid overfished areas where shark depredation is high • Rotate fishing spots to minimize shark habituation • Follow best practices to minimize time out of the water for fish Ask lawmakers to represent Florida’s anglers and guides • Tell your senators to support the SHARKED Act Help us solve the problem • Report shark depredation encounters to the FWC • Look for colorful IDs on sharks in 2025, and report sightings to BTT • Follow BTT (@bonefishtarpontrust) to learn how to get involved with tracking and tagging initiatives

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Back in the Flow Bonefish & Tarpon Trust is helping to restore tidal creeks in The Bahamas to support the health of the flats fishery and the environment.

BY SUE COCKING

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ot long before Hurricane Dorian ripped through Grand Bahama and Abaco Islands in 2019, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust spearheaded an important habitat restoration project at August Creek on Grand Bahama’s East End. Workers made three cuts through a logging road built in the 1950s that had blocked natural tidal flows between the creek’s north branch and the ocean and limited the historic pathways where bonefish migrate, feed, and prepare to spawn. The cuts re-opened free-flowing natural waterways and enabled bonefish (and other species) to use a range of habitats—mangroves, seagrass and sand flats—where they hadn’t been seen in decades. Local residents, fishing guides, fishers, government officials, and leaders of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), which oversees parks in the islands, lauded the restoration and urged that it be extended to other areas on East End. Now it’s happening.

“We’re now in the second phase of creek restoration—Snapper Island and the Gap,” said Rashema Ingraham, BTT’s Caribbean Program Director. “These creeks would have free flow to the ocean.

Snapper Island is downstream of August Creek to the north. The Gap [West Gap Creek] is west of August Creek. The road went westto-east straight across those creeks. The road will be removed from that area.”

BTT and the Bahamas Ministry of Works signed an agreement in 2024 to collaborate on the restoration of Snapper Island

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and the Gap. BTT will be providing technical expertise and funding to support both projects. At the same time, scoping is underway elsewhere across the Bahamas to identify future creek restoration.

The phase two creek restoration is slated for completion in the spring of 2025, according to Charlene Collie, Project Coordinator for the Ministry of Works.

At Snapper Island, plans call for workers to use heavy excavation equipment to carve a 984-foot-long, 98-foot-wide, 2-foot-deep gap in the defunct logging road. At the Gap, a 656-foot-long, 118-foot-wide, 1-3-foot-deep opening is being excavated.

“We anticipate immediate improvements in the area once these causeways are opened that will restore flow of water in and out of mangrove areas and improve the fish habitat,” Collie stated.

Another benefit of both projects, she cited, is flood mitigation.

Next steps may include a larger restoration project to bring back natural tidal flows at the McLean’s Town Causeway, known as “the bridge.” Also, Collie notes that, while the pre-Dorian excavation at August Creek improved flow in the area, the north channel remains partially blocked by storm debris. Further excavation of the causeway is recommended to improve tidal flow in the creek.

Conserving and restoring bonefish habitat is vital to The

BTT is restoring August Creek on Grand Bahama Island. Photo: Nick Roberts

Bahamas’ economy. A BTT study in 2018 found that flats fisheries—bonefish, tarpon, and permit—generate more than $169 million annually for the nation’s coffers.

“More habitat means more fish,” said Dr. Aaron Adams, BTT’s Director of Science and Conservation. “We’re restoring the connection to an extensive amount of habitat.”

As Grand Bahama’s East End returns to normalcy post-Dorian, habitat restoration will enhance that recovery, according to Ellsworth Weir, Director of Parks for BNT. The Gap lies within the Lucayan National Park.

“It’s a big deal,” Weir said. “With the effects of Hurricane Dorian and COVID, nothing could really happen until now. Residents are on board. I think they will be happy to know there will be more biodiversity in the south end of the creek. Most of them have rebuilt.

School is open. The clinic and the police station are back. The guys who use the water, they appreciate it.”

Robert Neher owns and operates East End Lodge, a fly-fishing operation in McLean’s Town near August Creek that employs 19 local residents as guides and lodge staff and accommodates 14 guests. The veteran guides regularly target bonefish in the island’s mangrove-fringed tidal creeks and on the vast adjoining flats. Neher and the guides understand full well the connection between the health of the East End’s creek systems and the health of the flats fishery as a whole.

Mangrove creeks provide critical habitat for bonefish. Photo: Pat Ford caption B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025

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“It’s important to have the environment at its best,” said Neher.

“These two restoration projects will improve tidal flow to the creeks, which are estuaries for small fish that need that natural flow for their survival. These creeks are a safe haven for young bonefish.”

Neher also agrees that the McLean’s Town Causeway is an area that should be prioritized for restoration. “That’s an extremely important project because the water flow was blocked when the road was built,” he said. “Because of this, the water is strangled trying to get from one side of the creek system to the other. We need to get it opened back up, so the water flow can be brought back to its original state for the health of the fishery. The existing culvert in the causeway needs to be widened and enhanced.”

Ultimately, the success of the restoration projects on Grand Bahama’s East End will benefit the marine environment, expand access, and lead to even better fishing.

The technical plans for restoration work to be done at Snapper Island in East Grand Bahama.

Sue Cocking is a freelance outdoors writer in Sebastian, Florida. For 20 years she worked as an outdoors writer for the Miami Herald. She loves fly-fishing, scuba diving and traveling.

Bahamians celebrate the planting of the 100,000th mangrove. Photo: Alfred Anderson

BTT Celebrates Planting of 100,000 Mangroves in The Bahamas

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ahamians gathered on a windswept beach in December to plant the 100,000th mangrove in BTT’s ongoing restoration project on Abaco and Grand Bahama. The planting and community celebration that followed marked a major milestone in a collaborative effort to reverse environmental devastation wrought by Category 5 Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

“Today we celebrate not only this achievement but, most importantly, the people who made it possible,” Rashema Ingraham, BTT’s Caribbean Program Director, shared at the celebration. “This milestone of 100,000 mangroves planted over five years is not just a testament to our commitment but a reflection of what we can achieve together—restoration partners, guides, schools, volunteers, and the government united for a rich future.”

Mangroves are a vital component of the islands’ natural habitat, preventing shoreline erosion, buffering against storms, and

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providing food and shelter—not just for bonefish, but for crabs, lobster, and numerous other marine species. Mangroves also store vast amounts of carbon, helping to mitigate the effect of climate change. The restoration project’s planted seedlings take time to mature, and are expected to become seed-bearing trees that will continue to replenish The Bahamas’ mangrove forests and nourish the flats around them without further human intervention.

BTT achieved its ambitious 100,000-mangrove goal in partnership with Waterkeepers Bahamas, Perry Institute for Marine Science, Bahamas National Trust, Friends of the Environment, and government agencies, among others. Local fishing guides, school students, civic group members, and BTT work crews pitched in to accomplish this first-of-its-kind restoration project for The Bahamas. Building on the project’s success, BTT and the Bahamas Mangrove Alliance have pledged to plant 1 million of these “walking trees” by the end of 2025 while also advocating for mangrove conservation nationwide.

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Captain Tim Carlile and Dr. Roy Crabtree will be inducted into the BTT Circle of Honor at the 12th Annual Florida Keys Dinner.

BY MIKE CONNER

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Capt. Carlile guides a client in his home waters of the Florida Keys. Photo courtesy of Tim Carlile.

t just so happens that the two gentlemen who are being inducted into Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s Circle of Honor met years ago. One, a Keys charter guide, the other a client, sometime in the early 1980s. They’ve had little contact since that time. Little did either know that four decades later, they would both be bestowed recognition for their contributions to Florida flats fishing and iconic shallow-water gamefish.

Capt. Tim Carlile, who will receive the Outstanding Guide Award, was hired by Dr. Roy Crabtree, who will receive the Flats Stewardship Award, to guide him on a fly-fishing trip in the Lower Keys when he was contemplating moving to the Keys full-time to start his own inshore charter fishing business.

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Tim Carlile’s father Cliff was an offshore captain and owner of the Sugarloaf Marina in the Lower Keys. Cliff encouraged 11-year-old Tim to take a party of tourists out to fish on the boat they rented from the marina. It was 1961 and Cliff would give his young son $5 per trip. It was more common at that time to rent boats than hire guides, and Carlile was already familiar enough with the shallows to prevent the renters from tearing up the lower units of the outboards. Plus, he could catch fish, and give them a real chance at success. Obviously it went well enough that the fire was lit under the young man, and he dropped out of school in tenth grade to guide full-time.

Carlile was later drafted by the Army and was stationed in

Capt. Carlile releases a pair of permit. Photo courtesy of Tim Carlile.

Germany before his deployment to Vietnam where he saw combat in an infantry unit. He was awarded a Commendation Medal for meritorious service. Once back in the states, Tim was attached to a readiness unit in Key West, which one can imagine was dandy with him, surrounded by the fish-filled waters where he would become an iconic flats guide for the next 60 years.

He still runs his Hewes Bonefisher, The Outcast, from Sugarloaf Marina daily, fishing even on his days off. Bad weather doesn’t put him off the hunt for bonefish, tarpon, or permit. Like all great guides, he seems to eke out something when others can’t.

This veteran flats guide and his clients have won hundreds of awards in tournaments, including the Key West Fishing Tournament, the Miami MET, the Marathon International Bonefish Tournament, and the Redbone series of flats tournaments.

Carlile’s personal best bonefish as an angler was an IGFA world record 14-pound, 10-ounce bonefish caught on 8-pound-test with Pepe Lopez behind downtown Islamorada, which was a line-class record for a time. It has since been eclipsed.

Carlile’s years of experience and generosity with his time and vast knowledge of the Lower Keys flats fishery make him a trusted partner to BTT. He has lent his boat to BTT researchers investigating bonefish migration, reproduction and feeding habits as part of BTT’s Florida Keys Initiative. Carlile and his clients have also tagged bonefish for research, and he has publicly advocated for management changes to support bonefish, tarpon and their habitats, as well as donated guide trips to support BTT’s fundraising. Carlile’s appearances on television fishing programs and documentaries showcase the importance of conservation of the flats. Presently, he co-hosts a weekly Keys radio show, on the U.S. 1 Radio Network.

When asked what this honor means to him, Carlile said he is

tremendously excited about it. “This means so much to me, after having guided for over 60 years, and done everything I could to preserve this place and help thousands of customers appreciate it,” said Carlile, who can be called a staunch homebody, given the fact that he hasn’t been “off the rock” much. For years, he never went to Miami, for example.

“No, I did not get up the road very far, had no reason to,” Carlile said with a laugh. For me, getting away was an occasional trip to Islamorada, and naturally I always ended up at Wide World Sportsman.”

Carlile has a knack for catching bonefish in conditions that are less than ideal for targeting tailers in the shallowest water, the classic way. “They have to be somewhere,” he says.

“During a month-long effort recently by BTT to gather fin clips for DNA testing, I ended up capturing and fin-clipping more bonefish than the other guides and anglers involved. But I went about it differently,” Carlile explained. “Besides avid fly fishers, I also chartered folks who wanted mangrove snapper, mackerel, trout, and other food fish, so during that month, I would primarily do that, but set aside some time to bait-fish for bones, if they agreed to it. I just went to slightly deeper places where I knew bonefish spent time, off the shallow crowns of the flats. I was surprised that I won the award for most fish sampled at the BTT awards banquet!”

He added: “Maybe that helped researchers understand their habits a bit better? After all, water temperature, food source availability, and other factors determine where bonefish are. It’s not always in the shallowest places.”

Capt. Steve Huff, a legendary guide and fellow member of BTT’s Circle of Honor, says that when he met Carlile, he himself hadn’t been guiding that long and fished out Sugarloaf Lodge. “It B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025

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Capt. Carlile runs his skiff. Photo courtesy of Tim Carlile.

was around 1970 and Tim was not there, he was still in Vietnam,” said Huff. “Once he was discharged, he began guiding, but the truth is he was guiding as a kid. It seemed he was guiding since birth. We became great friends. He’s not only a world-class guide but a great human being. He eventually had a son who he says he named Steven after me, which I think is B.S. but that’s okay!”

Huff says he was amazed at how Carlile could go into the backcountry and catch just about anything regardless of the weather.

“The kind of guides I respect are those who will work their ass off to give a paying customer a good time and get them in the right situation for their skill level to have a good experience that they could not get anywhere else, without reaming them out when they fail. And Tim Carlile is that guy,” said Huff. “He’s made heroes out of people who could not have done it alone. And that is what makes Tim a great fishing guide.”

Captain Carlile’s conservation ethic and all-round stewardship of his lifelong backyard is well-known, as are his people skills and personality. His fiancée Judy Kemp is quick to point out his good fortune to have had the Keys’ backcountry waters as his lifelong classroom.

“We are diametrically different in that I have a conventional college science degree; Tim’s science classroom has always been the Florida Keys backcountry,” said Kemp. “His life has been honed by the sea. He’s entertaining, humble, unpredictable, and well, just a little different. And after spending a day on his boat, his clients come back with a better appreciation for the backcountry and its creatures.”

only bumped into him a time or two while I myself guided out of Islamorada for a few years in the mid ‘80s.”

His passion for pursuing two iconic species is what drew Crabtree down to the Keys. “I was studying marine science at William & Mary in Virginia,” he said. “I really loved fly-fishing for bonefish and tarpon, and at that time I owned a 17-foot Mako and towed it to the Keys a couple times a year. In late 1983 I got my degree and decided to move to Tavernier. First, I got a slip at the Lorelei in Islamorada. After that, I studied for and got my Coast Guard Captain’s License. Now, I needed to learn the flats to fish better than I did, and at the Lorelei I got to know Captains Hank Brown and Billy Knowles and others.”

Crabtree took out his first customers in 1984 and guided until 1989 when he moved from the Keys.

“I got to know Hank Brown really well, and if it was not for his generosity and help, I may not have survived as long as I did,” said Crabtree. “He eventually threw me some bookings, but there was a catch. He was at the time the Secretary of the Keys Fishing Guides Association, and was ready to hand the position off, and he said to me you are going to be the new Secretary, to which I agreed. Actually, serving in that position gained me more friendships among the guides.”

Crabtree recalls that in his second or third year of guiding, a professor of his, John Dean at the University of South Carolina, said he had a graduate student, Ned Fear, who wanted to research tarpon. At the time, tarpon tournaments like the Don Hawley, Gold Cup and others were still kill-tournaments.

“Ned came to the Keys, and he had a little funding, so he and I basically “cut up” some of the dead tarpon from the weigh-ins,” said Crabtree. “So we continued ‘biopsies’ of the tarpon and I spoke to someone at the Florida Wildlife Research Institute and

*** Marine fisheries scientists, such as Dr. Roy Crabtree, through years of in-depth, intensive research make discoveries about the critters—in this case, bonefish, tarpon, and permit—that give shallow-water anglers a better idea of what makes their favorite fish tick. And the studies’ findings provide fisheries managers the data needed to make rulings to better protect the fisheries as a whole.

In a few cases, such researchers also fish. Dr. Crabtree not only fished, fly-fished in fact, he was a flats-fishing guide for a spell in the Florida Keys.

“The first time I ever went bonefishing was in 1977. A friend and I booked a guide out of Sugarloaf Key, Capt. Tim Carlile,” said Crabtree. “We caught a good number of bonefish. Beyond that I 32

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Dr. Roy Crabtree samples a tarpon for his work with the Florida Marine Research Institute. Photo courtesy of Roy Crabtree.

Dr. Roy Crabtree with his wife Laura.

was told that they were getting Wallop-Breaux gamefish grant money to hire a tarpon biologist. That was too good to pass up so I applied for the job and got it.”

Crabtree left the profession of guiding shortly thereafter, and moved to St. Petersburg to do research work on tarpon, and eventually branched off to study bonefish and then permit.

“At that time, we had a lot of access to dead fish, and researchers don’t have that luxury anymore given the catchand-release formats of tournaments and catch-and release laws on the fish we studied,” explained Crabtree. “So we turned to taxidermies both in Miami and St. Petersburg to remove the otoliths and gonads we needed for tarpon age determination. We discovered later that aging tarpon through otolith examination was difficult, whereas the otoliths of bonefish gave us more precise data on the fish’s age. And we did extensive studies on bonefish reproduction and bonefish diet, which helped us greatly to tie forage to habitat.”

Crabtree credits his interest in the heralded Grand Slam species to his time on the water fishing, and especially guiding in the Keys. “Without a doubt, that first guided trip with Capt. Tim Carlile lit the fire,” he said. “And I’ll add that being an angler and guide for the three species gave me a unique perspective on the fish that I might otherwise not have had as strictly a scientist. And being a guide gave me credibility as a biologist with the other Keys guides.”

Crabtree served as Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries in Florida, and lived in Tallahassee. After a year and a half, he

took the job as Regional Administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in 2003.

Other researchers look to Crabtree as a guru of sorts that influenced their careers. Dr. Ross Boucek, BTT’s Florida Keys Initiative Director, credits Crabtree for pioneering the effort to better understand the fish.

“I’ve never met Roy, but as a young scientist it was always inspiring to see his path from a Keys fishing guide to a marine researcher to a top-level National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration position, and every study I ever read, or cite, on tarpon, bonefish or permit has his name attached to it,” said Boucek. “What really sticks with me is his studies on bonefish growth rate, mortality and diet, and the fact is I still lean on those papers in our research work here at BTT today. We look at his data sets to see if any of the parameters have changed.”

BTT board member Dr. Michael Larkin did extensive work on tarpon, bonefish and permit during grad school at the University of Miami, and found that Crabtree’s fingerprints were everywhere.

“With all three species, it all began with Roy’s research. In all respect, no current researcher can really say ‘I did this first.’

Actually, the current season closures, no-take laws, all of it is due to earlier Crabtree research and recommendations.”

Larkin, an avid fly-fisher, pointed out that Roy’s studies on bonefish forage even had an impact on some of the more innovative fly patterns developed for bones.

“Noted fly tyers such as Tim Borski and Patrick Dorsey created deadly bonefish flies, including the Borski Slider and Dorsey’s Kwan Fly, widely available commercially, that very well mimic the Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta),” said Larkin. “These impressionistic flies were the result of Roy’s bonefish gut content study, in which he discovered the toadfish to be a common prey item in the stomachs of fish he sampled. I suspect that is satisfying to him, being a bonefish fly-fisher himself.”

Larkin says direct references to Crabtree’s studies are in every bonefish and tarpon publication in the last 20 years.

“What most don’t know is that Roy was a guitarist and lead singer for a band named the Dead Ichthyologists. But they shortened it to the Dead Ichs, if memory serves me!” Larkin added with a chuckle.

Mike Conner formerly guided fly and light-tackle anglers from Florida Bay to the Indian River Lagoon, and has written features for numerous outdoor publications. He currently serves as Conservation Editor for Florida Sportsman magazine.

Dr. Crabtree (left) previously worked as a fishing guide in the Florida Keys.

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The Florida Keys Initiative BTT continues to advance bonefish spawning research while launching new projects to determine possible causes of the Lower Keys’ permit decline.

BY CHRIS HUNT

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The bonefish pre-spawning aggregation discovered by BTT in the Upper Keys. Photo: Ian Wilson

he Florida Keys are the breadbasket of flats fly fishing— the island chain that drips off the southern edge of the Florida Peninsula is a shallow-water paradise that tickles the tropics and, to this day, serves as a magnet for America’s saltwater fishing community.

But, over the years, the Keys’ flats fisheries have ebbed and flowed, very likely in response to a number of environmental stressors ranging from water quality to fish harvest, both legal and illegal. For instance, the bonefish fishery in the Keys, until recently, could have been considered seriously depressed. As the bones seemed to show signs of trouble beginning in the 1990s, a remarkable permit fishery developed along Florida’s signature island chain, and the Keys soon became a permit hotspot.

And, of course, the region has always been a tarpon honey hole, again with frequent population peaks and dips over the

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years, also assigned to the same environmental factors that impact other important game fish. But the Keys’ history is not one that longtime guides and anglers are willing to forget—it’s home to more world-record tarpon, bonefish and permit catches than anywhere else in the world…combined.

That history, coupled with some scientific and technological breakthroughs, is at the foundation of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s ambitious Florida Keys Initiative, which seeks to restore the Keys’ flats fishery to its world-class status through science-based approaches and close collaboration with the angling community.

This storied chain of islands continues to face a number of environmental challenges, but ongoing research by BTT scientists is proving that something else is true, too: the Florida Keys are resilient. And the more biologists learn about the islands’ fisheries and environment, the more clues they gather for the

comprehensive conservation work that BTT has undertaken.

As any good scientist will claim, knowledge is the foundation of effective conservation. And, thanks to BTT’s sophisticated scientific approach to fisheries conservation in the Keys, we know more today than we ever have.

MOTHER NATURE GIVETH…

In the spring of 2023, BTT reported the discovery of a bonefish pre-spawning aggregation site—a bonefish gathering area where fish from all over the region mingle together before heading offshore for a massive, deep-water spawning run—in the Upper Florida Keys. The organization had discovered similar aggregations in other countries but determining where the Keys’ bones came together during the fall and spring spawning season was a tough nut to crack.

But, thanks to a host of spatial conservation data collected by Florida Keys Initiative Director Dr. Ross Boucek and his team, BTT was able to home in on an area that totals only about two square miles—the equivalent of a needle in a haystack. The discovery was eye-opening—the bonefish population in the Keys had been in decline for decades, and, at certain times, officially on the brink of collapse. Finding this bonefish pre-spawn aggregation changed the outlook for the Keys’ bonefish fishery. The discovery gave BTT researchers the roadmap to not only protect what now appears to be a robustly recovering stock of bones, but also to potentially find additional aggregations and learn more about the fish that, at one time, were the most sought-after fly-rod quarry in Keys.

“Nobody is fishing (the pre-spawning area) now, so we’re able to learn a lot about our bonefish,” Boucek says. “This is giving us the chance to continue gathering data and to make some important management recommendations so we can maximize this recovery.”

In recent months, piggybacking on its cumulative spatial research data that helped find that first aggregation in the Upper Keys, Boucek thinks BTT is on the brink of finding another aggregation around Key West in the southernmost reaches of the Keys. And, he says, a bonefish rebound is officially happening in Florida. In fact, he claims, the Keys are fast becoming a bonefish hotspot again.

“Our bonefish are now rivaling the bonefish of The Bahamas,” he says. “We’re seeing 4- to 6-pound bonefish, and (on a recent research outing) we spotted a fish that was approaching 10 pounds. It was very cool—the fish was in super clear water and swimming over perfectly white sand. It was just one of those moments, you know?”

So what’s spurring this bonefish resurrection?

“Honestly,” Boucek says, “we’re not quite sure.” But he has some ideas.

The beginning of the recovery—and the groundbreaking discovery of the aggregation site in the Upper Keys—coincided with some Caribbean-wide crackdowns on bonefish netting. Using the data collected over years, BTT science teams have learned that Florida’s bonefish are really “international” fish whose populations are likely supported by a combination of larvae that are spawned in distant locations and drift hundreds of miles, and locally spawned larvae. For example, BTT data indicates that some bones in the Florida Keys were spawned in the waters of Mexico, Belize, and Cuba. As the international community continues to rally around this economically vital fish—from a recreational perspective, at least—anti-netting enforcement and the regulation of fisheries as catch-and-release in countries throughout the region has blossomed. This might be some of the impetus behind Florida’s bonefish bonanza.

Interestingly, Boucek says, the Key West population boom is

Dr. Ross Boucek measures a bonefish before tagging and releasing it.

Photo: Ian Wilson

something that’s been completely unexpected.

“Key West has never really had a huge bonefish fishery,” he says. “Now we’re seeing lots of bonefish. More than ever before.

It’s incredible how many bonefish there are, and not just little bonefish, either. In four or five years, we think parts of the Keys might be a world-class bonefish destination again.”

According to Capt. Rich Hastings, who guides anglers in the Keys, mostly for tarpon, now might be a good time to make those flight reservations.

“We’re really seeing bonefishing bouncing back,” says Hastings, who has guided in the Lower Keys for nine years. “We’re seeing more and more bonefish, progressively, every year.”

And he’s not the only guide seeing and catching more bones.

Capt. John O’Hearn, who has guided in the Lower Keys since 2000, notes that the bonefish populations are providing an excellent angling opportunity that’s really been missing in the region for the better part of two decades.

“I think it’s all about recruitment,” O’Hearn says. “You get some good recruitment, and you’ll get fish. That’s definitely the case with bonefish. The bonefish fishing in the Keys is probably better than it’s been in anyone’s memory.”

MOTHER NATURE TAKETH AWAY…

Sadly, the outlook for the Keys’ prized population of permit doesn’t look quite as rosy as it does for bones that suddenly appear to be flooding the flats.

As for why, Boucek and his team have some ideas, but, as is commonly the case with developing fisheries science, there’s no one sure-fire answer.

“Working with a team of guides and anglers, we’ve come up with two theories to pursue over the next couple years,” Boucek explains. “Either the overall population size is down, potentially due to lack of recruitment similar to bonefish declines of the past, or permit don’t like the Lower Keys flats anymore and are choosing to be somewhere else.”

Regarding the second theory that could explain the permit decline, Boucek says the fish might have relocated because something is going on with their prey, which attracts them to the flats. In other words, as he rather bluntly describes the challenge for permit, “there might be a food-web short circuit.”

That could be due to the decline in productivity on the seagrass flats that permit prefer, and that’s causing one of the Keys’ B O N E F I S H & T A R P O N J O U R N A L SPRING 2025

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closure during permit spawning season. While BTT remains focused on spawning permit research at WDR and other sites, Boucek explains that BTT wants to help make the flats and nearshore habitats as hospitable to permit as possible through habitat and water quality improvements.

MORE SCIENCE AND MORE RESEARCH

It’s an odd dichotomy, Boucek admits. On one hand, he’s thrilled with a bonefish recovery that’s starting to get the attention of the international angling community. On the other, the diminishing permit fishery is a cause for alarm, and a clear indicator that the Florida Keys Initiative is critically important and has more to accomplish.

“As biologists, we always look at several important factors when it comes to fisheries challenges and any potential recovery,” Boucek says. “We look at fishing mortality and recruitment, habitat and water quality, and how those generate food. This approach informs our work with bonefish and permit in the Keys. If even one of those factors is problematic, then we know we still have work to do.”

Regardless, the general mood the initiative’s director emotes is celebratory. “We’re glad the bones have decided to come back,” he says. As for the Keys’ permit?

“We’ll figure it out,” he says. “And we’ll do the best we can to fix it.”

Capt. Rich Hastings releases as permit after collecting samples from it.

Photo: Dave Reilly

preeminent gamefish to change its behavior and its location. That could be indicative of a water-quality challenge that continues to pester the Keys. And that’s due to everything from a lack of desperately needed natural freshwater flows into Florida Bay from the Everglades to wastewater effluent that is percolating up from wastewater injection wells.

More evidence backs this up. Using non-invasive methods— basically swabbing a fish’s vent with a Q-tip—biologists have learned that many of the permit captured on the flats of the Lower Keys are swimming around on empty stomachs, or they’re dining on more pelagic prey that’s found in deeper water.

“Whatever prey the permit are after,” Boucek says, “it may not be on the flats right now or they think it’s not worth trying to hunt it.”

And the missing permit are just as alarming to the Keys’ guiding community as the rebound of bonefish is heartening.

Captain Chris Wilson, who guides out of Key West, is hopeful that Boucek’s research eventually bears fruit.

“This is a permit destination,” Wilson says. “The older guides who have been chasing permit around here for years are just up in arms about the numbers of permit they’re seeing. We have no idea where they’ve gone, but we sure hope they come back.”

O’Hearn agrees, but, again, he falls back on recruitment, related to Boucek’s first theory. He noticed a precipitous decline in permit directly after the 2022 spawn.

“We had a really good spawn that year,” he said, “but, for whatever reason, the numbers just kind of dropped after that.”

The biggest factor, he believes, is the lack of little fish in the Keys system. “We’re just not seeing the little 1- and 2-pound permit that we use to see, and that’s concerning.”

Boucek adds that this next phase of permit work builds on BTT’s permit spawning research at Western Dry Rocks (WDR), where BTT found that the majority of flats permit in the Lower Keys spawn. Based on this data—as well as the high level of shark depredation occuring there—BTT, guides, and numerous partners successfully advocated in 2021 for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to enact a seasonal no-fishing 36

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Chris Hunt is an award-winning journalist and an enthusiastic fly fisher who splits his time between the mountains of eastern Idaho and the blackwater rivers of North Florida. He writes about conservation, travel and the fly fishing culture all over the world.

Capt. Rich Hastings collects a permit fin clip sample for BTT. Photo: Dave Reilly

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Restoring the Indian River Lagoon Work continues to restore the estuary to its former glory.

BY KRIS MILLGATE An aerial view of an algae bloom in Indian River Lagoon. Photo: Dr. Mitchell Roffer

T

here are four estuaries of national significance in Florida. They are among 28 National Estuary Programs (NEPs) in the United States authorized under the federal Clean Water Act. NEPs are federally established, but locally managed, creating ideal collaborations for landscapes spanning multiple political jurisdictions.

The Indian River Lagoon, one of Florida’s four NEPs, is on the state’s eastern border. It dominates a long, skinny stretch of the Sunshine State next to the Atlantic Ocean.

“Indian River Lagoon is an integral part of our state’s natural resources because of what it supports, especially our fisheries,” says Kellie Ralston, Vice President for Conservation and Public Policy at Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. “The number of people that are focused on it and the caliber of people gives me hope. We are seeing incremental progress and we want to make sure we keep the momentum going so we can see it return to its glory.”

Indian River Lagoon’s biggest challenge is water quality. BTT’s Win Back Our Water campaign, launched in the fall of 2023, is responding to that challenge by addressing the overload of inputs from leaky septic systems, outdated sewage treatment facilities, and stormwater runoff, which are the main causes of Indian River Lagoon’s decline.

“The Win Back Our Water campaign has been very significant,” says Dr. Aaron Adams, BTT’s Director of Science and Conservation.

“It has brought attention to issues not only in Indian River Lagoon, but statewide. It’s also raised awareness of the impact of contaminants and too many nutrients. Having science translated to layman’s terms helps people see how things affect their way of life.”

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WASTEWATER TREATMENT

When BTT published its findings on pharmaceutical contaminants in fish, the response was tangible and immediate.

Nearly all (94%) of sampled redfish in the lagoon had humanity’s flushed medication in their bodies. The statistic revealed that Florida’s decaying septic systems urgently need improvements and its sewage treatment plants require upgrades. Both cost money, a lot of money.

“We have made significant improvements through state and local funding,” says Dr. Duane De Freese, Executive Director of the Indian River Lagoon Council. “Brevard County puts in $50 million annually. The state puts in $100 million a year for water quality improvements. Those are historical levels of funding at local and state levels, but at the federal level it’s very modest.”

It takes billions of dollars to fix a landscape-sized problem with every community adding to the total progression. That’s why collaborative lagoon restoration efforts with local, state and federal partners under NEP designation is so important. Its council monitors dozens of projects across the watershed that hosts seven counties, 38 cities and 1.6 million residents.

“When you start to assemble these smaller projects and the impact they have on water quality and community, there’s a remarkable effort,” De Freese says. “It’s incredible what’s going on.”

Seagrass is rebounding in patches and algae blooms are in decline, but there’s still more to be done for a system that definitely has an inlet but not much of an outlet.

“There is no other estuary in North America that is quite like Indian River Lagoon,” De Freese says. “We are unique because

A culvert under a road on a dike that surrounds a mosquito impoundment.

Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

we are narrow, shallow and microtidal so what you put in the estuary, tends to stay in the estuary.”

STORMWATER

The other challenge highlighted by BTT’s Win Back Our Water campaign is runoff. It stays in the estuary just like the nutrients and contaminants from wastewater. Stormwater sounds benign, but it’s far from harmless because what’s in that runoff isn’t just rain. The 10,000 collection ponds in Indian River Lagoon contain residue, additives and chemicals, including glyphosate which is in 99 percent of the lagoon’s sampled fish, according to a study conducted by BTT partner Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA).

“The lagoon has been in trouble for many years,” Adams says.

“But a good sign of improvement is seeing seagrass in places we haven’t seen it grow in 10 years. Seeing that come back is significant. It’s great to have progress, but we still have a long way to go.”

When those 10,000 storm collection ponds are full, they release. Often times, like after a heavy storm, all the ponds discharge into the lagoon at the same time. Staggering their releases through a coordinated network could help reduce unwanted overload. That’s what’s next on the radar for Indian River Lagoon, and possibly other watersheds in the future.

“In Florida, it’s not often that something comes along that shows potential to change the way we approach water resource management,” says Greg Knecht, Executive Director of The

Filamentous green algae that blooms when there are too many nutrients and smothers fish habitats. Photo: Dr. Aaron Adams

Nature Conservancy’s Florida Chapter. “We’ve made significant strides around wastewater treatment, but stormwater has not really changed in 30 years. We’ve taken away how watersheds historically work. The intent is to put the watershed back into watershed. When we’re successful, this is transferrable across Florida and hopefully other states.”

Outdoor journalist Kris Millgate is based in Idaho where she runs trail, hunts birds and chases trout. When she’s on the coast, she likes casting to bones and jacks. She followed salmon migration solo during the pandemic for the Emmy-nominated film Ocean to Idaho. Her new Emmy-winning film, On Grizzly Ground, is available now along with her third book My Place Among Beasts.

See her work at www.tightlinemedia.com.

A redfish cruising in a healthy seagrass bed. Photo: Pat Ford

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PART AND PARCEL For decades, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has worked closely with fishing guides to identify conservation threats, design research, and apply research results to management proposals.

BY MICHAEL ADNO

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he permit fishery in the Lower Keys appeared to flatline in 2020. The once verdant corners of the Lakes, the Marquesas, and the backcountry were eerily quiet. Rumors of dead fish along the beach in Key West followed a chorus of concern from guides. Some wondered if permit might follow the trend of bonefish in the Upper Keys, which is to say disappear completely. For several years before that point, BTT collaborating scientist Dr. Jake Brownscombe had been working diligently with fishing guides to tag Lower Keys permit to determine where they were going and what could be done to stop the decline. That critical work was part of BTT’s more than decade-long Project Permit which seeks to conserve and restore the Keys’ iconic permit fishery. A long-tangled knot began to open when BTT discovered that more than seventy percent of the tagged permit congregated each spring at a place called the Western Dry Rocks.

Ten miles southwest of where US 1 spits into the Florida Straits, a canyon of coral and fingers of reef compose the Western Dry Rocks, which lie in about ninety feet of water. Between April and the back end of summer in July, permit and three species of

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snapper congregate at the Western Dry Rocks for the hedonistic convention of reproduction we refer to as spawning. At the same time, center consoles from the chain of islands descend on it, making quick work of the concentration of fish. Inexorably, sharks take note, and inevitably claim fish from baited hooks.

What a cocktail of research collected by BTT and local guides showed was that permit were being harvested by sharks before making it to the boat just as they prepared to spawn, i.e. the most vulnerable and critical point in their adult lives.

The story of that research is indicative of how BTT and anglers have worked together in the past decade: a community identifies a need or threat; BTT conducts the needed research and consults with the community; that exchange yields a plan to address the need or threat and informs the proposals made by BTT to regulatory bodies to improve fisheries management. “That’s at the core of how we operate,” said Dr. Aaron Adams, BTT’s Director of Science and Conservation.

The late guide, Captain Travis Holeman, who was inducted posthumously into the BTT Circle of Honor in 2024, spent

BTT Florida Keys Initiative Director Dr. Ross Boucek joins BTT Board Member Capt. Doug Kilpatrick on a research trip. Photo: Ian Wilson

hundreds of hours with BTT collaborators, Dr. Brownscombe and Dr. Luke Griffin, tagging permit with acoustic transmitters when the organization first started to look more closely at the permit fishery in the Lower Keys. BTT also consulted with veteran Keys guide Captain Will Benson to locate the best zones to place receivers to pick up the signals of the tagged fish.

“The input provided by Will and other knowledgeable Keys permit guides was essential to the development of our design infrastructure,” said Dr. Ross Boucek, BTT’s Florida Keys Initiative Director.

Soon, BTT scientists were following groups of fish through the backcountry, west into the Lakes, and finally offshore to the Western Dry Rocks by April. Once they learned that this bubble of coral was so central to the fishery, they started to talk with the local community about what sort of regulations could protect it.

Would a full closure work? The Lower Keys Guides Association (LKGA) said no, because doing so would immediately eliminate one of the most productive areas for other species all year, impacting the offshore and commercial industries significantly.

So then what about limiting the use of certain baits? Well, as far as permit were concerned, that didn’t address the issue either, because they’d eat jigs as well as they’d eat live crabs. So finally, what BTT and the cadre of guides spanning offshore and inshore, commercial and recreational anglers proposed was a seasonal closure, a four-month period from April 1 till July 31 when permit and snapper arrived to spawn.

If that seems straightforward, it wasn’t. Collecting the necessary body of data, and the subsequent back-and-forth with the community, preceded a long stretch of road before the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) adopted the seasonal closure. First, BTT and members of the LKGA spoke on behalf of the issue before the National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council in a contentious meeting attended by those who opposed BTT and LKGA’s position. One guide on Sugarloaf woke up to a dead permit hanging from his children’s swing set. Another found a dead permit on his doorstep. Soon after, a small group from the Keys, including BTT staff, LKGA representatives, and lighttackle captains flew to Tallahassee to make their case before the

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Capt. Will Benson poles across a prop-scarred flat in the Florida Keys.

Photo: Ian Wilson

FWC, with the support of five other organizations. More meetings followed. Pages of comments grew into a pile. And in April 2021, the FWC announced that it planned to close the Western Dry Rocks to fishing from April 1 till July 31 for a period of seven years, at which point the effectiveness of the closure would be assessed.

This is the focus of BTT’s current research at Western Dry Rocks in collaboration with the guide community.

In the past decade, the role that guides have played in forming management protocol grew exponentially, and it shows in this case among others during the past few years. “I don’t know why we were late to the game,” said Captain Doug Kilpatrick, former president of the LKGA and BTT Board Member, said of the closure.

“But I think people truly care about the fishery. We saw such big change where we said we got to get involved. I think we all recognized it was necessary.”

The same sequence between guides and BTT led to the proposed zoning for the National Marine Sanctuary’s “Restoration Blueprint,” which is essentially the federal agency’s overhaul of its management policies that span Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas. In this case, though, BTT, LKGA, and the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association (FKFGA), developed meaningful solutions that would help eliminate the damage caused by leisure boaters running aground, leaving long-lasting prop scars, or running over migrating tarpon. Those three organizations in the past two years drew on decades of policy implemented first in Everglades National Park and a scientific paper published on effects of recreational boaters, and then sat down to figure out just what was possible. With a handful of liaisons spanning the entire Keys, Boucek laid out charts and said, “Let’s map it out.”

Again, ideas like turning the entire Marquesas or southern edge of the Lakes into idle zones were dead ends, so how could they formalize running lanes and protect the historic edges that fish swim, as well as sensitive flats.

“Basically, codifying the historical, traditional practice of fishing guides,” is how Benson put it, “Which is running in deeper water through known lanes.” The submitted comments reflect conventions like coming off plane well ahead of a flat, approaching certain basins with care, and moving through them at a slow speed or only with the push pole.

“The zones that the fishing guides proposed were more expansive than the Sanctuary’s initial proposal for those types of protections,” Adams explained. “It’s pretty telling and interesting that the fishing community is actually now pushing the resource management agencies to do more.” And as Boucek added, “It was a very rare case where fishers are asking for more access limitations than the federal management agency.” The Everglades National Park, with BTT’s and guides’ input, adopted this approach more than a decade back with poll and troll zones, and while it faced resistance from guides when initially proposed, it’s reanimated some sleepy portions of the Park and won over its critics. The contrast between the two processes more than a decade apart showed how much more engaged guides and the broader community had become. “It’s a new generation of guides concerned for their future,” noted Kilpatrick.

“From my standpoint, it’s been tremendously productive,” Benson said. “We’re the eyes and ears,” he added, and the relationship between BTT and the community “just makes us that much stronger.”

*** East End guide Cecil Leathen plants mangroves for BTT’s Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project. Photo: Elijah Sands

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Across the Gulf Stream in The Bahamas, local guides have collaborated with BTT to identify eleven pre-spawning aggregation sites (PSAs) for bonefish. Spread among seven islands, these are the places the fish return to annually before

a knowledge base to guide management actions. In the case of guides and anglers, they’ve realized that the more educated they are, the more effectively they can engage with non-profits, scientists, and management agencies. In the modern world, natural resource management has to be a collaborative process between management agencies, local communities, and groups like BTT, so that the resulting conservation and management measures have a chance of success.

***

Permit gather to spawn at Western Dry Rocks. Photo: Dr. Ben Binder

making the next age class of the species, thereby sustaining The Bahamas’ flats fishery, which generates more than $169 million for the nation’s economy.

Steven “Kiki” Adderley, a guide at Mangrove Cay Club in Andros, recounted how guides historically avoided PSAs, running around them, and never fished them to protect the species central to not just their career but the lifeblood of the local economy. “Everyone has a passion for these fish, because it’s our livelihood,” Adderley said. “So we try our best to protect them with or without the government.”

The partnership between guides and BTT ultimately led four of the PSA sites to become part of national parks in The Bahamas (some of which were created through a longstanding partnership between BTT and the Bahamas National Trust). The other seven sites that have been officially identified have been proposed for protection to mitigate any threats. Justin Lewis, BTT’s Bahamas Initiative Manager, explained how the tight-knit relationship there helps the guides take more ownership of the fishery, and in turn, they feel more empowered to advocate for it. As Adderley said, “We educate each other, you know? We try our best to work together, better know these fish, and protect them.”

In 2019, Category 5 Hurricane Dorian lashed The Bahamas, stalling for days over the Abacos and Grand Bahama. In its wake, Grand Bahama lost 70 percent of its mangroves. Since then, guides have played a vital role in helping BTT and its partners to restore 100,000 mangroves throughout the region, helping to repopulate a tree that is synonymous with The Bahamas. And as Lewis explained, guides have been central to the project, not just as the people who BTT hired to help but as leaders in their own communities. “Again, it all comes back to advocacy,” Lewis said. “If you don’t have habitat, you don’t have a healthy fishery.”

But much broader than just the health of the flats fishery, the restoration of the northern Bahamas’ mangroves also benefits local communities and mitigates the effects of climate change, as the trees blunt the force of storms and wave action, and store vast amounts of carbon.

Trying to place just what the threats are to fisheries or habitats in each community is something that’s become increasingly powerful for scientific outfits like BTT. The organization had sought to reveal what’s important to communities, collaborating with them to stake out the perimeter of their needs and conservation priorities. And based on those, BTT designs its research and shares the findings before forming a recommended regulatory framework or conservation strategy. That’s what has always been at the heart of BTT’s work, because collaborative science creates

Farther north in Florida, BTT’s staff are also looking at how to weave in the observations of fishing guides, recreational anglers, and commercial fishers into resource management recommendations for the Indian River Lagoon. For decades, rumors inevitably became widely held beliefs about just what led to the fishery’s collapse. Some pointed to the freeze in 2010 that resulted in vast mats of dead gamefish. Others blamed discharges that irrevocably altered the Lagoon’s seagrass flats. Regardless, it was almost impossible to discern what ailment caused the most damage, whether it was nutrient loading, unfettered development, or the algal blooms that haunted the Lagoon for years because of how interwoven these contributing factors are.

But undeniable was that the knowledge belonging to longtime users of the resource wasn’t reflected in how it was managed.

So BTT took a snapshot of the region from recreational users, both guides and anglers, to first understand how they saw the decline, as well as reports from commercial fleets. Then, BTT took that data and overlaid it with existing scientific sources like aerial photographs, seagrass surveys, and water quality reports. The study found that both recreational and commercial fisheries were in decline in the decade of the 2000s, well before the 2010 freeze event and massive algal blooms. So although the 2010 event was a tipping point for the IRL, the system had been in decline for years prior. This information suggests that conventional wisdom on when and how the IRL ecosystem collapsed needs to be revised, which will help to improve restoration efforts.

For 30 years, Captain Edward Glorioso, who grew up on Boca Grande, always looked forward to the weeks when the cold fronts started to wear out and tarpon returned to Charlotte Harbor. For the past decade, he’s guided in his home waters where he derives more than eighty percent of his annual income during the months he focuses on tarpon. He’s watched as tournaments came and went. He took note of how the small community there organized

BTT researchers acoustically tag a tarpon in Southwest Florida.

Photo: Ed Glorioso

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Indian River Lagoon guide Capt. Frank Catino speaks at BTT’s Win Back Our Water panel discussion in Vero Beach, FL, with Virginia Barker, Valerie Seidel, and Duane De Freese. Photo: Nick Roberts

to eliminate break away jigs, and recently spoke out about the return of them. So when he got the opportunity to work with BTT, eager was an understatement. He was happy to participate in tagging programs that swayed regulators to protect the fish outside Florida. He clipped fins for BTT’s recent Tarpon Isotope

Study and accompanied scientists during field work to help net and study juvenile fish for BTT’s Juvenile Tarpon Habitat Initiative.

“Anything I could do to help and learn more about these fish,” Glorioso said.

On one of those trips, he wondered what the hell they were doing dragging a net through what appeared to be a mosquito ditch. When they came up with 180 juvenile tarpon, it recast his understanding of how vulnerable future generations of this fish might be to the development marching through Sarasota and Charlotte Counties. Those juveniles weren’t just using the mangrove fringes you might expect, but deeper inland at the back of serpentine creeks or narrow spillways.

After years spent working with BTT, Glorioso said, “Everything that they’re trying to do is to improve the fishery. They love the fish.” For BTT, for guides, and the habitats they both want to protect, this process has become more critical with each passing year as threats continue to grow. The organization is exponentially stronger with the guides’ participation and deep well of knowledge. As a result, BTT’s science has also attained a different sort of staying power, one that, with backing of the angling community, has and will continue to inform improvements to fisheries management that will help to safeguard the future of the flats fishery.

Michael Adno lives in South Florida and writes for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Bitter Southerner, where his profile of Ernest Mickler won a James Beard Award.

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Through the Guides Conservation Captain Q&A

Captain Perry Scuderi Islamorada, Florida

How long have you lived in the Florida Keys and what changes have you noticed in the fishery?

I grew up in Hollywood, Florida, and started coming to the Keys back in 1977. The top three things that amazed me about the Keys were the stars, the abundance of marine life—from giant sawfish to microscopic worms—and the sunrises and sunsets.

I was lucky that I started guiding when I did. I not only got to work alongside some of the old school guides, but also to call them friends: Cecil Keith, Buddy Grace, Bob Tiburs, Sid Bryant, Joe Johansen, Croft Ashmore, Joc Leprec, Vic Gaspeny, Richard Stanzyk, Addy Adleri. These captains taught me so much respect and love for our environment.

I have lived in the Keys full-time since 1997, and since then I have seen more pressure, larger boats carrying more people, and more sharks.

Can you describe your best day of fishing?

The one trip that stands out to me is a day I went with my son in his boat, an old Whaler dubbed the “Dutchman.” We were only out for a few hours; even better, we only had one bite. One bite was all we needed, because it turned out to be a gorgeous permit. Watching my son mature into a young man and watching him catch this great fish made for possibly my best day of fishing.

What do you see as the biggest threat to the Keys fishery, and what can be done about it?

The biggest threat is water quality. We suffer from hypersalinity, which leads to algae blooms, and then to seagrass die-off. Restoring the historic flow of freshwater down the state would be the most successful part of a complex solution.

What has been your experience helping collect samples for BTT’s various studies?

I have participated in bonefish DNA and tarpon DNA studies.

Now the most recent study is the Permit Food Web Study. It’s been my experience that my customers enjoy participating in these studies. I’m interested to see the results. Learning new facts always helps us understand both the fish and the fishery better.

You were one of the first captains to contact BTT about the “spinning fish” phenomenon when it spread to Islamorada in the winter of 2023. What role do you think guides play when it comes to emerging concerns?

Originally, when the “spinning fish” started, I received a phone call from Tallahassee asking me what was going on. I then spoke with Capt. Pat Bracher in the Lower Keys, who informed me about what guides in the Middle and Lower Keys were experiencing.

Almost immediately after that we started to see the same phenomenon in the Upper Keys. I then contacted Dr. Ross Boucek from BTT. Being able to contact Dr. Ross is priceless for us. He is not only a biologist but he is also a fisherman and fellow lover of this incredible environment that we call home.

Guides and commercial fishermen are really the first line of 50

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Captain Perry Scuderi. Photo: Riley Cummins

defense. Collectively we are literally out there on the water every day. Throughout my career I have seen how the guides, captains, and commercial fishermen are mostly an unused resource. Over the years we have witnessed people who sit in offices in Tallahassee make decisions on policies and laws without ever consulting these professionals who literally spend their lives on the water. Policymakers should come to our guide meetings and ask us what we see and believe is going on out there on the water.

BTT is currently working on its new Shark Depredation Project.

How have you seen the volume and behavior of sharks on the flats change?

Years ago, when we were in high school, we used to bring our canoe, “Sick Trip,” down to Flamingo and the Everglades to go out fishing. We almost always encountered sharks. So it’s not surprising to know that they have always been around. But in my guiding career I have witnessed a change in their behavior.

After years of taking fishermen’s fish, they have learned that the boat is where they can get easy food, so now they swim right up to the boat and circle until a fish is hooked or released. I respect sharks. I love them and all creatures, but I believe there has to be a balance. Now it definitely seems out of balance.

Why is it important for anglers and captains to support research and conservation?

These groups are working to learn, understand, and protect these incredible resources that we cherish. It’s important to understand current threats and future solutions. As a longtime guide and member of the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association (FKFGA), I can honestly say that BTT is our best ally in understanding and protecting our environment and our future. Not only are they handson, but they love these fish and our environment.

Is there anything you’ve seen in the environment that gives you hope for the ecological resilience of the fishery in the future?

When we had that freeze back in 2010, and somehow air from Siberia literally made it all the way down to the Florida Keys, we had lows with windchill in the upper 30s. Through this cold snap, I witnessed two things: despite losing a huge majority of our snook population, the following year there were redfish in the snook spots. Nature is amazing. Then in time, the snook returned and now are back to great numbers, along with great numbers of bonefish, and right now a ton of small tarpon are around.

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BTT Events

13th Annual NYC Dinner Honors Bob Rich, Jr.

Bob Rich, Jr. and Capt. Paul Dixon.

T

BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie, Bob Rich Jr., Capt. Paul Dixon, and Monte Burke.

he flats fishing community gathered in New York City on October 15, 2024, to honor business leader and acclaimed author Robert E. “Bob” Rich, Jr., who received the Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation in recognition of his longstanding support of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s mission.

Rich was joined at the special event by cast members of the forthcoming film, Blood Knot, which is based on his 2015 novel, Looking Through Water, and stars Oscar-winner Michael Douglas and his own son, Cameron. The evening’s program was hosted by New York Times bestselling author Monte Burke, and featured memorable tributes to Rich from Michael Douglas, Bass Pro Shops Founder and CEO Johnny Morris, and Captain Paul Dixon.

“Bob Rich is known for his dynamic leadership of one of the country’s largest corporations, yet it’s his passion for fishing that’s played an important role in shaping his life,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “He’s taken that ‘pull’ that he feels from the water and channeled it into stories that entertain and inspire. We appreciate all that Bob has done to celebrate and promote fishing and to conserve the resources on which it depends.”

Rich is Senior Chairman of Rich Products Corporation, the largest family-owned frozen food manufacturer in the United States. During his 16-year tenure as Chairman, he led the

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company to more than $5 billion in worldwide sales revenue.

A member of the South Florida Fishing Hall of Fame, Rich was first exposed to the art of storytelling around campfires in northern Ontario. Reading Hemingway, Melville and Cervantes during his youth inspired him to write, and living on the shores of Lake Erie and the Florida Keys provided a wealth of his own tales to tell. In addition to Looking Through Water, he is the author of Fish Fights, The Fishing Club, and The Right Angle, and is the coauthor of Secrets from the Delphi Café. With his wife, Mindy, Rich founded the Rich Entertainment Group, which produces theatrical entertainment, including the Broadway show, Water for Elephants.

Rich served on the Cleveland Clinic Board of Directors for more than 20 years, including eight as Chairman. He is also the owner of three minor league baseball teams and the past Commissioner of the National Baseball Congress, an organization of amateur and semi-pro baseball leagues operating in the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame, the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame, the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, and the National Baseball Congress Hall of Fame.

As a recipient of the Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation, Rich is enshrined in BTT’s Circle of Honor, housed in the Florida Keys History & Discovery Center in Islamorada, Florida.

Back to front: BTT Vice President Kellie Ralston, BTT Caribbean Program Director Rashema Ingraham, Caribbean Philanthropic Alliance CEO Anthea McLaughlin, Nick Dawes, RARE Conservation President Caleb McClennen, Bahamas Department of Agriculture Director Deon Gibson, Global Conservation Vice President Amy Tidovsky, BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie.

Bass Pro Shops Founder and CEO Johnny Morris introduces longtime friend Bob Rich, Jr.

NFWF Development Strategist Jenni Henry, BTT board member Kris Rockwell, and Jesse Colon.

Robert Ford with Nancy and John Johns, a member of BTT’s Board of Directors.

Back to front: Kyle Eichin, BTT board member Noah Valenstein, NFWF’s Jenni Henry, NFWF Chief Development Officer Whit Fosburgh, BTT Vice President Kellie Ralston, NFWF Executive Director Jeff Trandahl, Amy Robbins Tower, Carl Kuehner, and Allie Kuehner.

Bass Pro Shops Founder and CEO Johnny Morris (center) with family and friends.

Capt. Paul Dixon and Blood Knot cast members Michael Stahl-David and Cameron Douglas.

Local fishing guides joined the celebration.

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Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Events

Capt. Jot Owens discusses tarpon conservation efforts in North Carolina.

Photo: Heather Templeton

BTT EVENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

At BTT’s gathering at the Quail Hollow Country Club on October 2, BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie and Wilmington-based guide, Captain Jot Owens, shared an update on BTT’s ongoing efforts to conserve tarpon at local and regional scales.

On November 13, Atlanta area members enjoyed another memorable BTT event at the historic Burge Club that featured a fascinating discussion between legendary guide Captain

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Champion tarpon angler Andy Mill shares the stage with legendary guide Capt. Steve Huff. Photo: Scott Lones

Steve Huff and renowned tarpon angler and former Olympian Andy Mill of the Mill House podcast. Attendees also received a Florida Keys conservation update from BTT scientist Dr. Ross Boucek, who is leading BTT’s efforts to identify and conserve bonefish spawning sites in Florida waters.

BTT also thanks our members and friends who joined us at gatherings in Asheville, Chicago, Vero Beach, and San Francisco.

Thanks to those whose favorite guide is their

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Their Future is in Your Hands

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Last Cast

Lefty’s Enduring Legacy

BY FLIP PALLOT

A

phalanx of nine flamingos moved with their gangly gait across the inches-deep grass flat 150 yards to the northeast of my skiff. All among the marching feet of the birds, small baitfish and shrimp were backlit by the morning sun as they skittered and jumped to avoid the beaks of the flamingos, and as if part of the parade, half a hundred redfish rushed along in pursuit of whatever the birds disturbed from the thick, turtle grass.

Angling legends Flip Pallot and Lefty Kreh. Photo courtesy of Flip Pallot.

I was more than excited to have “Lefty” aboard for his first trip to the Everglades…my attempt at payback for my very first, real fly-casting lesson.

Lefty stood on the bow cap with an eight-weight rod, and a redfish fly that I had tied, and he had graciously agreed to use; I was never the greatest tier.

As I began to pole the skiff in the direction of the action, I was astounded to see Lefty lay the rod along the gunnel, rummage in his boat bag, and remove a 35mm camera with a 400mm lens.

That in hand, he placed a boat cushion at the stem of the bow cap and lay in position to record the priceless scene occurring just up the flat.

Seeing Lefty prioritize the photo over the fishing opportunity was the first, in an almost 60 year string of life lessons shared with me by Lefty…lessons dealing not only with fishing and the outdoors, but with life, relationships, business, career planning, and things too numerous to mention.

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Upon losing our house and belongings to Hurricane Andrew in 1993, Diane and I found ourselves living for a time in the back of my pickup truck, awaiting the appearance of an insurance adjuster. If the homeowner was not present when the adjuster came around, the adjuster would move on to another claim. Our home was completely destroyed…with us inside. Included in all that was lost, was a magnificent, black, and white photo of the flamingos and redfish…along with a note of thanks from Lefty for his day of introduction to the Everglades.

Days after the storm, Lefty appeared, aided by some locals who were able to navigate the devastation of the Homestead, Florida area. Finding us living in the truck, he hugged us, wept, and handed Diane a paper sack containing $25,000. “Ev and I don’t need this,” Lefty said. “You don’t have to repay it, just use it to get back on your feet.”

Through the lens of acts like these, the perfect loop of Lefty’s wisdom and selflessness guided me through many, many years of my adulthood. We traveled the world, did schools, films, shows, personal appearances, and benefits together. I was able, and privileged to share my family, and most private thoughts and moments with him.

His absence left an enormous hole in my world…but his legacy has filled it. I constantly hear people speak of their encounters at events with Lefty, or on trips where he spoke with them, or helped with their casting, signed their ball cap, or autographed a photo. They felt they knew him, or that they had been mentored by him, in spite of a short passage of time in his presence.

Making people feel this way was among his superpowers…and he wasn’t even trying!

For all that he did and gave to folks, the industry, and myriad causes, I never knew him to ask for anything in return…except to pay it forward.

In Lefty’s last few years, he became fascinated with texting. I tried to text him every day or so with a joke, a photo, a question, or story. When Lefty died, I continued texting him for quite some time, until they finally gave his phone number to someone else… who did not appreciate my constant texts, and sent an unpleasant request that I desist! I did.

In the six years since his death, I’ve thought of him daily, and try to say his name (just in case he’s listening). I try to imagine what he’d make of our efforts at conservation, which was dear to him… His thoughts about changes and improvements in tackle and techniques… What he’d think of our currently divided Nation, for which he fought in World War II, and I remember something that he said to me, and others: “I don’t disagree with YOU, I disagree with your IDEA, to which you are entitled.”

He would want us to keep that concept in mind as we remember him, and struggle to come together as a Nation during the coming year!

Friends and fans of Lefty will want to keep an eye on the near horizon for a wonderful film, Lefty: The Greatest of All Time, a film about Lefty’s enduring legacy to us all.

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