baby bone blitz

One of the more concerning issues surrounding the loss of nursery habitat is that

the impacts may not be felt for a long time. In the case of bonefish, a fish that

often has a life span exceeding 20 years, this is especially true. As a fish with a

longer life span grows older, its growth rate tends to slow down. So in a school of

bonefish you can have many similar sized fish, but their age range will vary. If we

can’t tell the young stud bonefish from the old-timer bonefish, and there truly is

an issue with our nursery habitats, the effect won’t be seen until the older fish

start dying off. With no younger fish to replace them, this transition could literally

take years to notice and by then the damage to the $465 million dollar per year

Keys flats fishery may be irreversible.

Through the Florida Keys Initiative, Bonefish and Tarpon Trust is doing it’s best to

bring the ailing Keys bonefish population back to its former glory. As our

knowledge of these fish grows larger, our conservation efforts will continue to

ramp up. BTT relies on donations from anglers like you and other anglers that

truly care about the health and well being of the fishery to keep those efforts

rolling. For more information on the Florida Keys Initiative, or to become a

member of BTT, please visit http://www.btt.org.

DAN DOW

is Bonefish and Tarpon Trust’s PR and Communications Manager

Photos by Dan Dow

Photo by Chris Haak

Originally published in This Is Fly Magazine.