FIU Launches Study of
Florida Bay Bonefish
At the Fifth International Bonefish Tarpon Symposium
held Nov. 7-8, 2014 in Dania Beach, Jennifer Rehage,
associate professor at the Southeast Environmental
Research Center at Florida International University,
announced the launch of a comprehensive, three-year,
BTT funded study to examine in fine detail what’s going
on with the Keys bonefish population, particularly in
Florida Bay. Rehage said that when the study is
completed, “we’ll know what happened and how it
happened to bonefish in the bay.”
BTT Launches Second Juvenile Tarpon
Habitat Restoration Site
Scientists at Bonefish and Tarpon Trust broke ground this
fall at their second Juvenile Tarpon Habitat Restoration site
by setting up antenna arrays that will be used to track
juvenile tarpon movements within a series of canals. “The
first step is to see how the fish currently use the canal
system,” said JoEllen Wilson, BTT’s Juvenile Tarpon Habitat
Program Manager. “Then once the restoration is complete,
we will continue to sample to see if the tarpon prefer one
type of habitat over another.” The habitat restoration is
expected to start in the fall of 2015.
BTT Awarded the AFS Conservation
Achievement Award
This year, The American Fisheries Society presented
Bonefish and Tarpon Trust with the prestigious Conservation
Achievement Award for the Fisheries Management
Section. This annual award recognizes an organization’s
outstanding contributions to fishery conservation or fishery
science.
The Bahamas Initiative
With BTT conservation efforts expanding throughout the
Islands of the Bahamas, it became apparent that someone
was needed to represent BTT in the Bahamas on a full time
basis. In October 2014, BTT hired Bahamian native Justin
Lewis as the Bahamas Initiative Coordinator. Justin is in
charge of leading conservation efforts such as tagging and
habitat restoration. He will also be charged with maintaining
and forging new relationships with the many lodges and
guides around the islands that depend on the health of the
bonefish fishery for their livelihood.
(above)
Photo by Pat FordJustin LewisPhoto by Dan DowPhoto by Dan Dow