Multidirectional movements of sportfish species between an estuarine no-take zone and surrounding waters of the Indian River Lagoon, Florida

• Main Authors: Tremain, Derek M., Harnden, Christopher W., Adams, Douglas H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Fisheries; Management; Indian; Red drum; Sciaenops ocellatus
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1834/30933

We examined movement patterns of sportfish that were taggedin the northern Indian River Lagoon, Florida, between 1990 and 1999 to assess the degree of fish exchange between an estuarine no-take zone (NTZ) and surrounding waters. Thetagged f ish were from seven species: red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus); black drum (Pogonias cromis); sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus); common snook (Centropomusundecimalis); spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus); bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas); and crevalle jack (Caranx hippos). A total of 403 tagged fish were recaptured duringthe study period, including 65 individuals that emigrated from the NTZ and 16 individuals that immigrated into the NTZ from surrounding waters of the lagoon. Migration distances between the original tagging location and the sites where emigrating fish were recaptured were from 0 to 150 km, and these migration distances appeared to be influenced by the proximity of the NTZ to spawning areasor other habitats that are important to specific life-history stages of individual species. Fish that immigratedinto the NTZ moved distances ranging from approximately 10 to 75 km. Recapture rates for sportfish species that migrated across the NTZ boundary suggested that more individuals may move into the protected habitats than move out. These data demonstrated that although this estuarineno-take reserve can protect species from fishing, it may also serve to extract exploitable individuals fromsurrounding fisheries; therefore, if the no-take reserve does function to replenish surrounding fisheries, then increased egg production and larval export may be more important mechanisms of replenishment than the spillover of excess adults from the reserve into fishable areas.