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Using recreational tournament records to construct a 53-year time series of the Florida Keys recreational Bonefish fishery

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Abstract

Recreational fisheries managers are often challenged by the lack of long-term data to monitor the status and trends of fisheries. Tournament records may provide a useful source of information to identify long-term trends in recreational fisheries. The Bonefish fishery in the Florida Keys (USA) has experienced a long-term and sequential period of decline that has been quantified with multiple data-poor assessments. The fishery also has a long tradition of supporting recreational fishing tournaments that date to the late 1950s. Here, we use recreational fishing tournament records to track the status and trends of the Bonefish fishery. We validated trends in tournament records by comparing time series changepoints with changepoints observed with angler logbooks and Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) surveys. We compiled partial records for nine candidate tournaments. Only one tournament had sustained records that were suitable for analysis (Islamorada All Tackle Bonefish Invitational Bonefish and Permit Championship 1968–2021). Changepoint analysis identified several changepoints in catch rates, fish size, and participation that coincide with changepoints identified through analysis of angler logbooks and LEK surveys from previous research. The congruence of changepoints identified among the three data sources suggests that these tournament records are tracking the status and trends of the Bonefish fishery. Optimistically, we identified a recent two-fold increase in Bonefish catch rates beginning in 2015, potentially suggesting a rebound in the fishery, which reflects anecdotal angler reports. Our results highlight the potential for tournament record data to contribute to status and trend assessments of recreational fisheries.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the tournament participants for their continued effort to fish in these events, ofr sustaining long-term records, and for sharing their catches and insights with us in our LEK surveys. We thank tournament organizers for their willingness work with science teams to compile these records. This project was supported with funds collected from Bonefish and Tarpon Trust and University of Miami.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, Coconut Grove, FL, 33146, USA

    Ross E. Boucek, Elijah Dwoskin, Steven M. Lombardo, Carl Navarre & Aaron J. Adams

  2. Earth and Environment Department, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    Ross E. Boucek, Jennifer S. Rehage, Nicholas A. Castillo & Rolando Santos

  3. Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Fort Pierce, FL, 34946, USA

    Steven M. Lombardo & Aaron J. Adams

  4. National Marine Fisheries Service, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

    Michael Larkin

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  1. Ross E. Boucek
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  2. Jennifer S. Rehage
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  3. Nicholas A. Castillo
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  4. Elijah Dwoskin
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  5. Steven M. Lombardo
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Correspondence to Ross E. Boucek.

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No approval of research ethics committees was required to accomplish the goals of this study. Aaron Adams is a Guest Editor of this special issue, but he had no involvement in the peer review of this article and had no access to information regarding its peer review.

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Boucek, R.E., Rehage, J.S., Castillo, N.A. et al. Using recreational tournament records to construct a 53-year time series of the Florida Keys recreational Bonefish fishery. Environ Biol Fish 106, 279–291 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-022-01299-5

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