AUSTIN, Texas — For many a veteran angler, the pinnacle of a fishing
career comes with the explosion of chromed muscle that signals his
first tarpon hook-up. That experience was once common on the Texas Gulf
coast; so common, in fact, that through the 1950s, tarpon tournaments
were commonplace and presidents and potentates made the journey to the
third coast to catch a “silver king.”
Then, the tarpon seemed to just disappear. By the early 1970s, the
sought-after sportfish were rarely seen off Texas, and even more rarely
landed. And no one really knows why.
The construction of reservoirs and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
diminished and altered freshwater inflows; coastal development
filled-in critical habitat and water quality declined as population and
industry expanded. Biologists say all are factors that likely
contributed to the species’ decline. In addition to those
perturbations, commercial fishing pressure in Mexico increased over the
years and often targeted tarpon.
“It is difficult to put your finger on the one reason for the
decline in tarpon along the Texas coast,” said Larry McKinney, Ph.D.,
director of Coastal Fisheries for the Texas Parks & Wildlife
Department. “It is likely a combination of many things. One of the
confounding factors is that we actually know very little about the
biology of the species.”
Researchers hope to change that beginning with the Tarpon Tomorrow
Pro-Am Tournament Aug. 4-5. At the event, headquartered at Laguna
Harbor in Bolivar, Texas, scientists will attempt to place as many as
one dozen pop-up archival transmitting tags on tarpon.
The tags, known by the acronym “PAT,” are embedded in the muscular
backs of the fish for up to two years. While being towed by the tarpon,
the tags record the fish’s movement, water depth and water temperature
at regular intervals. At a preset time, the tag pops off the fish and
floats to the surface where it transmits the recorded information to an
orbiting satellite.
“It’s going to tell us, we hope, information concerning Texas tarpon
migration as well as their behavior in entering and leaving Texas
estuaries,” said Scott Alford, tournament committee chairman for Tarpon
Tomorrow, a non-profit foundation dedicated to understanding and
protecting tarpon stocks. “There’s also going to be an effort to place
some tags in tarpon off Port O’Conner and in the bay.”
Alford said his goal as a lifelong tarpon angler is to see uniform
management of the tarpon population across the Gulf of Mexico, and
researchers say the PAT program will help do just that.
“The information collected on this research project will have a
direct application to the management of this species by defining the
population or “stock” shared by different States and Mexico,” said
Ivonne Blandon, Ph.D., a biologist and genetics expert at TPWD, who is
coordinating the effort for the agency. “It is truly an international
scientific effort as we are working with experts from all around the
world but especially Mexico.”
Already, PAT deployments from taggings in Mexico, Louisiana, Florida
and the Atlantic seaboard have yielded valuable information about the
migratory patterns of the fish.
Tarpon Tomorrow is the driving force behind the ongoing project and
is leading a group of like-minded sportfish conservation organizations
— Tarpon and Bonefish Unlimited and the Coastal Conservation
Association — in gathering support for the study.
Tarpon Tomorrow has secured private funding for the purchase of
about half a dozen of the $3,500 tags, and TPWD purchased six of the
tags for use by the program.
The study itself is a collaboration headed by Jerald Ault, Ph.D., of
the Rosenstiel Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Scott Holt
of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, and biologists
from TPWD and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
While not as abundant as in the 1950s, tarpon seem to have made something of a comeback in recent years along the Texas coast.
The numbers today are sufficient to support a small but productive
recreational fishery and a number of guides specialize in
catch-and-release trips for the silver king.
The tagging program is part of a larger effort by anglers and
agencies to improve the fishery. TPWD has also been studying hatchery
techniques, working to assure freshwater inflows in Texas bays,
protecting water quality and restoring critical habitat along the Texas
coast and in conjunction with counterparts in Mexico.
“It will take all of us together, scientists, fisheries managers,
conservation organizations and saltwater anglers to assure the future
of tarpon,” said McKinney. “But for the first time in many years I see
the possibility of progress towards that goal and we do not want to
miss that window of opportunity.”
