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The Fish Biology Program has been awarded funding from MARFIN for additional reef fish research. The new study entitled:
"Evaluation of the Efficacy of Current Minimum Size Regulations for Selected Reef Fish Based on
Release Mortality and Fish Physiology."
This is joint project between Mote Marine Laboratory (MML) and the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) campus. Mote personnel will be working with Dr. Robin
Overstreet and Ms. Nancy Brown-Peterson of USM. This will be the second MARFIN collaboration between our two Laboratories. We hope that it will be as successful as the first, which was on cobia age, growth and reproduction
off the southeastern coast of the United States.
The study, which has just begun, will target red grouper, gag, red snapper, vermilion snapper and mangrove snapper and will cover our current study area. The study duration will be two years.
Many aspects of the study are similar to the MARFIN project we just completed and with which you are familiar, a few are quite different. Due to insufficient data on double tagged (PIT+ single barbed date
tags) tag returns and returns of circle hook captured red snapper, we will continue these aspects of our previous research. We also still need target species measured, tagged and released, so we hope that you will continue
to help us.
The objectives of the study are:
 | To test the hypothesis that red grouper are more susceptible to depth-induced mortality that red snapper, based not only on swimbladder size and thickness, but also on the amount of bundles of rete mirabile
and gas gland cells in the swim bladder. |
| To test the hypothesis that smaller red grouper (<12 in. [30.5 cm.]) survive rapid decompression better than larger (>15 in. [38 cm.]) red grouper because of changes in swimbladder structure with size
(between 12-15 in. [30.5-38 cm.]). |
| To test the hypothesis that circle hooks will greatly reduce release mortality in red snapper. |
| To continue to obtain catch and release mortality rates relative to depth and gear for red grouper, gag, red snapper, vermilion snapper and mangrove snapper. |
| To determine tag shedding rates and effects on growth and survival for fish tagged with single barbed dart tags in red grouper, gag and red snapper. |
| To continue to obtain movement and migration patterns for red grouper, gag, red snapper, and the mangrove snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic. |
MML's Part:
MML personnel will continue to measure, tag and release undersized target species (red grouper, gag, red snapper, vermilion snapper and mangrove snapper) from
headboats off St. Augustine, Sarasota and Panama City. We will send out fish tagging kits (identical to the ones used in the past MARFIN study, except we added mangrove snapper to the study) to [participating fishers, track tag
returns, collect red grouper and red snapper swimbladders for gross morphology study and to send to our colleagues at USM for histological investigation, send collected data to NMFS, and write and distribute the newsletter.
Your Part:
In order to accomplish our objectives, we need your help. We need you to continue measuring and tagging the target species and sending us the data sheets. If you
target red snapper and are participating in the circle hook study, please continue to do so. Thanks to MARFIN funds we will be able to continue the newsletter and the top tagger and tag lottery awards.
GCRL's Part:
The scientists at GCRL will receive preserved red grouper and red snapper swimbladders sent by MML personnel for histological preparation. They will prepare and
interpret the histological slides of the swimbladders relative to the biology of the fish and photograph various swimbladder functions. In addition, they will document the second rete bundle in the red grouper swimbladder and
determine the size at which this second set of rete develops and becomes functional
Last Update: June 15, 2004
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MOTE MARINE LABORATORY