In early April, the BTT staff received a report of a tagged permit that was recaptured in the lower Keys. Captain Don Gable was fishing with his angler and well-known photographer, Tosh Brown, when they hooked and landed a beautiful Keys permit that had previously been tagged with a BTT dart tag. Tracing the tag number back through our records, we learned that this particular fish was tagged on October 22, 2013 by angler Joe Skrumbellos on the exact same flat in the lower Keys! Unfortunately Captain Don was not able to measure the fish when it was recaptured, but when the fish was originally tagged it measured in 21.5 inches. Comparing the two photos of this fish shows that it grew quite a bit in the past 2.5 years. The similar location of the catches supports the hypothesis that permit, like bonefish, tend to be homebodies and they frequent the same locations time after time.
Jared Sholk with his tagged permit caught on 4/8/16
Then, Mother Nature threw us a curve ball. Just a few days later we received a second report from angler Jared Sholk. Jared was fishing off shore, south of Key West when he caught a tagged permit that weighed in at an estimated 15 lbs. Heading back to the record books we found that Jared’s fish was originally caught and tagged less than a year ago on July 21, 2015 by Captain Carl Ball nearly 120 miles north in Biscayne Bay! Previously, the record distance traveled by a BTT tagged permit was a fish that was also tagged in Biscayne Bay by Carl Ball and was recaptured roughly 65 miles north near Lake Worth, FL.
When asked about these two very interesting, yet contrasting pieces of data, BTT’s Dr. Aaron Adams said, “This is exactly why tagging and reporting of tagged fish is so important. A main goal of Project Permit is to determine what portion of the permit population remains in small home ranges and what portion moves long distances. For example, bonefish tagging revealed that bonefish have small home ranges, but can migrate long distances to spawn. It is possible that permit follow similar movement patterns to bonefish. The information from Project Permit will let us know if the current permit regulations are appropriate or if they need revision following BTT’s science-based approach to conservation.”
