Tippets

Short Takes on Important Topics

Btt Partners With Project Healing Waters

United States veterans from Project Healing Waters recently joined BTT staff, partners, and bonefish guides to plant 1,400 mangroves on Abaco as part of BTT’s Northern Bahamas Mangrove Restoration Project, which will revitalize important bonefish habitat and bolster coastal resilience for local communities. The largest effort of its kind in Bahamas history, the five-year project seeks to plant 100,000 mangroves in areas of Grand Bahama and Abaco hardest hit by Hurricane Dorian, with more than 26,000 mangroves planted to date.

GOVERNOR DESANTIS AWARDS $22.7 MILLION FOR WATER QUALITY PROJECTS

BTT Vice President Kellie Ralston and board member Noah Valenstein joined Governor Ron DeSantis on December 1 in Miami where he announced seven awards totaling $22.7 million to support water quality improvements and protection of Biscayne Bay, which provided vital habitat for bonefish, tarpon, permit, and numerous other species. Projects funded through the Biscayne Bay Grant Program include septic to sewer conversions, stormwater management and wetland restoration in areas surrounding Biscayne Bay, Florida’s largest estuary with a direct connection to Florida’s Coral Reef. BTT advocated for a number of these projects and worked with the DeSantis Administration to secure funding.

Btt Returns To The Burge

Atlanta area friends enjoyed an afternoon of shooting on October 26 followed by a discussion between renowned angler Andy Mill of the Mill House podcast and Monte Burke, the acclaimed author

Btt To Develop A Vulnerability Index For Juvenile Tarpon Habitats

Since 2016, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust has been working with anglers and guides as citizen scientists to identify tarpon and snook nursery habitats and classify them as natural or degraded. Natural habitats are able to function as productive nurseries for juvenile fish, and require protection. Degraded sites are in need of habitat restoration. To prioritize these sites for protection and restoration, BTT is creating a Vulnerability Index (VI), which uses GIS mapping data layers for nursery habitat sites overlaid with data on current and potential development locations, freshwater flows, and land ownership (public or private) to categorize sites as High, Medium or Low vulnerability.

The current focus is Charlotte County, Florida, near the tarpon fishing capital of the world—Boca Grande. BTT recently partnered on a grant proposal with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Coastal and Heartland National Estuary Partnership (CHNEP), and Charlotte County through NOAA’s Actionable Science Program that would fund collection of data layers needed to construct the Vulnerability Index and package it in a way that can be used by Charlotte County’s land use planning department. Once this VI is in place, BTT plans to expand to other regions in the state where sportfish nursery habitat is at risk.

oceanographic models to simulate where bonefish larvae in the Bahamas are transported after spawning, thus linking an important spawning location and places to consider for juvenile habitat protections. The computer simulations are the first to link spawning locations and nursery areas across vast spatial scales that would not be possible using traditional fisheries surveys. This works builds on previous research that linked adult bonefish home ranges and pre-spawning aggregation locations, which informed the creation of new protected areas in The Bahamas. Additional research determined the spawning patterns of bonefish, showing they spawned offshore in deep water at night.

These important new findings suggest that additions are needed to the existing Bahamas’ protected area network to further conserve bonefish populations. The new areas of concern are in the Moores Island area of Abaco, the central-most eastern islands of the Berry Islands, and North Eleuthera. Additionally, existing national parks in the Marls of Abaco, North Shore/The Gap of Grand Bahama, and the Joulter Cays north of Andros should be expanded. The Bahamas’ existing protected areas already protect nearly 86.5 billion acres of sea and land. But the national park expansions suggested by this study would add additional marine habitat that is targeted at the bonefish fishery, and for the first time ever, conservation of bonefish nursery habitats—the foundation of a healthy fishery.

Florida Keys Tournament Results

2022 Grand Champions

Swamp Guides Ball

Luke Krenik and Capt. Eli Whidden

March Merkin Permit Tournament

Jose Ucan and Capt. Justin Rea

Golden Fly Tarpon Tournament

Bart Knellinger and Capt. Bear Holeman

Don Hawley Tarpon Tournament

Mark Weeks and Capt. Andy Thompson

Gold Cup Tarpon Tournament

Dave Preston and Capt. Luis Cortes

Del Brown Permit Tournament

Mike Ward and Capt. Brandon Cyr

Herman Lucerne Biscayne Legends Classic

Collin Ross and Rick DePaiva

Herman Lucerne Memorial Backcountry Fishing Championship

Andy Yaffa and Capt. Jared Raskob

Islamorada Invitational Fall Fly Bonefish Tournament

Robbie Binder and Capt. Eli Whidden