Research in Action
Dedication to the future of snook and our fisheries is a non-stop effort. Here are the latest happenings:
| 02 December 2011
(Click Image To Enlarge) Grad students at UFL are requesting your input to develop a vision for the Florida Gulf Coast Snook Fishery. The snook in this photo was photoshopped by professor Kai Lorenzen (far right). It was the largest hatchery-raised snook recaptured in a Snook Shindig Research Tournament.
Take UF Snook Survey [Click Here]
We are graduate students at the University of Florida. As part of a Fisheries Management class, we are working on a project to develop a management vision for the Florida Gulf Coast snook fishery.
The vision will be based on stakeholder consultation regarding management options and quantitative modeling of biological and economic outcomes.This survey will allow us to characterize fishery stakeholders and management preferences. It takes approximately ten minutes to complete.Editor's note: SGF is pleased to partner with UF in promoting participation in this survey and commends Prof. Kai Lorenzen for his leadership in progressing fishery management concepts.
| 27 October 2011
Snook, tarpon, bonefish, crevalle jacks, and even mullet, snapper and catfish perished in large numbers in the Jan 2010 freeze.
The value of discard data to marine fishery science is being realized through angler reporting.
The 2010 cold kill was a galvanizing event for Florida Anglers. Hundreds of thousands of fish including many prized inshore game species were killed. The vast majority of anglers had never seen anything remotely comparable.
The huge fish kill underscored the need for systematic angler reporting to determine the condition of remaining populations. By spring 2010, SGF volunteers had produced a new self reporting online survey, called Angler Action, adapted from previous logbooks with the help of FWRI fishery biologists.
| 12 October 2011
Mangroves not only hold big fish but also serve as shelter and larder for juveniles.
Anglers can take Action to stop mangrove loss
Florida Mangrove habitat are incredibly valuable real estate, to our fish and fishermen. Here's what's happening to our mangroves and what you can do to reverse the trend.
In the most recent case of wanton mangrove destruction, 109 mature trees were removed from a private property and the adjacent lot owned by the town of Jupiter. The area was known by local anglers and snorkelers to hold snook along with the plenty of other mangrove-dwelling marine life...
| 26 May 2011
Appeal to Collier County for Gamefish nursery protection
Curb the use of fertilizers during rainy season to help protect fish habitat.
A Coalition of organizations including the Snook Foundation is advocating for strengthened fertilizer ordinances across the state.
Most Florida residents who venture outdoors are aware of the impact fertilizer application has on our water bodies. Ponds, streams and estuaries choked with algae and invasive species are now the norm - they are hard to miss. These choked waterways drain to our coastal areas and affect not only local freshwater but also saltwater fishing and most importantly, gamefish nursery habitats. Here is a letter from Snook Foundation's executive director:
| 03 May 2011
(Click Image To Enlarge)Left to right: Chuck Pickover, Sean Dunnuck, Jeremy Neff, Steve Rial, Richard Donovan, and Anthony D'Andrea were some of the winners at the Angler Action Tournament at River Palm.. Trophies donated by UniqueSpecies.com Anglers got together for a purpose in Jensen Beach, at the Return to River Palm tournament, marking one year since the Angler Action program began in response to the killer freeze of 2010. The program is a collaboration between anglers and fishery managers to broaden information on gamefish populations.
This year's tournament celebrated Angler Action progress and expansion of the program to encompass six top inshore gamefish. All recreational catches of Snook, Trout, Redfish, Permit, Tarpon and Bonefish can now be recorded any time at www.angleraction.org.
"We choose to work together to assure that the high level of fish abundance and diversity will continue in Florida for generations to come,' said Capt. Mark Nichols, of DOA Lures, spokesman for the Angler Action program.
| 17 March 2011
Tell your legislators NOT to change rainy season fertilizer bans - Let's NOT erase progress made protecting our waters
Excess nutrients from fertilizer and other sources find their way through inland waterways to bays and inshore waters where they contribute to algae blooms and habitat degradation.Florida’s Snook, Trout, Redfish, Tarpon and Bonefish, Ducks, shore and wading birds…well, all the wildlife that depends on our estuaries, bays, rivers and lakes are in danger! Our marine life is at peril due to legislation being considered in Tallahassee. All of us who hunt and fish or just enjoy the outdoor life need to be concerned.
State Senate Bill 606 by Evers and House Bill 457 by Ingram would repeal [existing laws] that currently allow counties and cities to protect against polluting nutrients from fertilizers getting into our state’s waterways.
Driven by retailers like Home Depot and Lowes and the Florida Retail Federation, the bills would take away the power of local ordinances that are now prohibiting application of fertilizers during rainy seasons. This is the time of year when most of the runoff of excess nitrogen and phosphorous winds up in the water, causing those massive algae blooms in the aquatic environment.
| 31 January 2011
(Click Image To Enlarge)Spotted Sea Trout and Redfish are now part of the 'bigger picture' being pieced together by anglers through the AAP photo-Jenny McBride, Maurice and Sea TroutAnglers' database broadens its scope to redfish-trout-snook-tarpon-bonefish & permit
A new age of angler activism is dawning and participants in Year Two of the Angler Action Program are on the cutting edge. Since the inception of the program in May 2010, anglers recorded more than 2000 hours of fishing, documenting the catch of 1693 Snook. See the breakdown of Fall and Summer Fishing reports below. This information was shared with FWC fishery biologists, who asked for an expansion of the program to include additional species.
Many fish caught by recreational anglers in Florida are released. Recording data on both the harvested and released fish, anglers are building an information base that can help better determine abundance and condition of our fish stocks.
| 20 January 2011
Following presentations from two experts on the pros and cons of replacing the Ceitus barrier in Cape Coral, the vote by the Matlacha Civic Association to have the barrier replaced was nearly unanimous.
"It was clear that the vast majority of our membership was in favor of having the barrier put back," said civic association president Bill Stoelker. "We had been asked to take a position on this matter and our position is now official."
| 30 December 2010
Cape Coral's North Spreader Canal system is transporting sediment and pollutants into Matlacha Pass. aerial photo from 10/2010DEP delaying restoration of protective barrier
After nearly three years (see historical recap), we are still battling for essential gamefish habitat in Matlacha.
As it now stands, freshwater that once was divided among numerous flow ways into Matlacha Pass via tidal creeks is entering the Pass at a single source. This has drastically changed the quantity, timing, and quality of freshwater flowing into the aquatic preserve waters, greatly degrading the estuary. Is DEP, the agency charged with protecting our waters, unaware of what is happening? If you care about gamefishing in Matlacha, let DEP know.
| 08 November 2010
WMD Decision will affect Gamefish Nursery Habitat
The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) will be deciding at their November meeting whether changes in flow levels, recommended by scientists including the District's own, will be adopted. The needed changes are critical to the health of the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary and its juvenile gamefish populations. We are urging anglers to let SWFMD governing board members know of the importance of their vote this week. Here's how
| 19 October 2010
Native plants give the food and shelter that fish have adapted to over millennia. photo: Dr. Phil Stevens
We all have a stake in shoreline
A concrete seawall does not support the food and shelter that Florida fisheries need for survival. Native plant communities, such as mangroves, seagrass and algae, give the food and shelter that native fish and fisheries have adapted to over the millennia. Productive fisheries need productive plant communities.
I have watched Florida seawalls, seagrass and mangroves for over five decades now. Sure you can see oysters settling on seawalls and little gobies and blennies settling in seawall oysters. Gray (mangrove) snapper juveniles will then settle in these oysters if the oysters are large enough, and eat the little crustaceans and fish that use seawall oysters.
| 29 September 2010
Visitors to the MAP Kids Clinic Oct 2 are asked to keep a lookout
Baby Snook are part of Snook Foundation's educational outreach.
Several years ago, I began taking
care of hatchery-born snook, as part of my duties as one of the volunteer outreach
coordinators for the Snook Foundation. Baby snook were part of a Snook Foundation's educational exhibit that was shown at various events.
Over time, I have become a competent ‘snook mom’. It’s really a lot of work for a human to try to provide all the things snook babies need to grow up healthy and smart. Nature, given a chance, does such a great job of it, that we might think it’s simple.
I, on the other hand, found it quite a challenge to look after just the basics of food, water quality, temperature, light…on a daily, and sometimes hourly basis. As I learned more about growing snook, I was grateful to see that I was not also going to have to teach them anything about survival. All seem to have sufficient self-protective instincts, like... look out above!
| 02 September 2010
FWC Commissioners meeting in Pensacola today voted to open the Florida West Coast Snook season "for catch and release only," and open the East Coast season for the regular limited harvest of Fall, 2010. If you were following the FWRI 'Options', that is, Option C for the East Coast and Option D for West Coast anglers.
Rick Roberts, Executive Director of the Snook Foundation was one of many angler representatives who brought the commissioners the most current information on the state of the snook fishery. "People tend to feel emotional about snook and snook-fishing. We listen with respect to all anglers, and try to present their findings and opinions in an uniform way. We are glad that we have quite a bit of factual information to share, and we feel that our voices were heard."
| 31 August 2010
Dr. Phil Stevens, FWRI, Charlotte Harbor Field Lab
The Importance of Living Shoreline for Juvenile Snook in Charlotte Harbor
Dr. Phil Stevens, is an advisory council member of the Snook Foundation. Here he provides an overview of his recent studies on the Caloosahatchee River, one of the Florida rivers that may turn out to be critical in restoring Snook populations.
| 21 July 2010
(Click Image To Enlarge) Cobia caught on one of St.Lucie County's artificial reefs
Can Artificial Reefs contribute to Fishery Management?
James Oppenborn is St. Lucie County's Coastal Resources Supervisor and the recipient of Snook Foundation's 2009 Excellence in Habitat Restoration Award, in recognition of his work deploying and monitoring artificial and oyster shell reefs in Indian River Lagoon. Here are some of his results and thoughts going forward.
In 5 years managing the St. Lucie County Artificial Reef Program I have been careful to collect data for use in science which shows the importance of artificial reefs to both fish stocks and the people who harvest them.
Note from the Snook Foundation: If you have been a reader of this website for long, you probably know where we stand on Inshore Fishery Management: More important than slot and bag limits, much more important than hatchery production, Juvenile and Adult Fish Habitats are essential for a robust inshore fishery. So what role can artificial reefs play in essential habitat creation or restoration?
| 22 June 2010
Guest Editorial by Dr. Grant Gilmore
We had been setting traps in thirty inch diameter culverts connecting the Indian River Lagoon to the impounded Jack Island State Park mangrove forest. Each fall the culverts are opened to allow tides and fish to migrate from the forest to the Lagoon and back. We set the traps for three hours on ebb, flood tides both during the day and at night. On 27 Novermber 1085, 3,104 juvenile snook between 0.5 and 2 inches in length were captured moving against and with the tide in culvert traps around this imoundment. Over two thousand came from one trap.
| 22 June 2010
Jesus Lluis of Miami was one of the first anglers to start logging his trips on the data page.
Easy to use tools put you onboard
If you were wondering if you were an important piece of the snook fishery, think no more. Your participation is needed now more than ever. FWRI snook biologist Ron Taylor explains why:
"It's your fishery, so get involved, or put up with scientists taking up the slack using the limited information available...
"Right now we just don't know how many snook were killed this winter. Estimates run from 200,000 to 300,000, but that could mean as few as 75,000 or as many as 500,000, or more.
"Part of the problem, he explains, is much of the information they have received is anecdotal, meaning "word of mouth." That means the information is subject to the usual phenomenon of more, bigger fish each time the story is told. Further, much of the information has been second or third hand. (There's a reason the "telephone game" is a game...)
14 May 2010
The Army Corps and South Florida Water Management District got an earful at public meetings this week.
On Tuesday, May 11, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Jacksonville District Commander, Colonel Al Pantano, addressed Lee County residents and the Lee County Commission regarding the unseasonably high flow releases being discharged from Lake Okeechobee.
On May 12 and 13, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board and Colonel Pantano heard public comment on the affects of those releases on the estuaries at the Governing Board meeting in Stuart. The message they heard from both Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie advocates was loud and clear: find alternatives to blowing out our natural resources.
| 09 April 2010
Snook in Port of Tampa. photo credit: Bebo SmithThe Snook Foundation has taken
the first steps in setting up baseline fishery data survey
driven by anglers with the Angler Action Program (AAP), which has been agreed
upon and designed with the help of fishery biologists in Florida
and Texas. We
will roll out the program at an event at The Funament Event at River Palm Cottages and Fish
Camp (Jensen Beach, FL) the weekend of Apr 17th. Scientists from
both FWC and Texas
will be on hand to assist SF personnel and anglers with the roll out.
In Florida, the motivation for AAP revolved around the many questions/complaints about accuracy in stock assessment and the recent winter fish kill closure of snook. Texas anglers are trying to improve their growing snook fishery, and collecting accurate data is a critical step.
| 06 January 2010
Ron Taylor breaks down the latest chunk of data on snook migrations throughout the year in the Charlotte Harbor Estuary.
Snook move to the rivers to escape the cold, right? Well, maybe not!
Snook are euryhaline and use the entire estuarine system- from far upriver seaward to the lower estuary and beyond.
The accepted paradigm that cold water temperatures cause snook to move to rivers in the wintertime may be true, however further study is needed to explain seasonal movement and abundance in their overall habitat.
This study reports seasonal sizes and abundance of snook from Charlotte harbor and its 3 main rivers.
| 04 January 2010
Teen Anglers were recognized for their contribution to the Indian River ecosystem, by St. Lucie County Commissioners. Back row L-R: Commissioners Chris Dzadovsky and Doug Coward, Jim Oppenborn, Teen Leaders Cammie Ward and Captain Joe Ward, Teen Mom Carrie Roe, Teen Ariel Vance, Helen Kinchen, Dylora Kohler, Taylor Meding, Commissioners Chris Craft, Charles Grande, and Paula Lewis. Front 3 L-R: Teen Justin Roe, Cash Roe and Robert Kinchen Jr.
Indian River Lagoon Water Quality Benefits from Angler Interventions
The St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners honored Teen Anglers' Treasure Coast Chapter with a proclamation recognizing their contribution to Indian River ecosystem projects, on January 5th, 2010 in the commission chambers in Ft. Pierce Florida.
The Treasure Coast chapter worked throughout the 2009 season to help the Indian River deal with upstream pollution from stormwater run-off by bagging and deploying oyster shells. In April last year, Teen Anglers launched their efforts by bagging an impressive 2 tons of oyster shells in one hour to help restore St.Lucie inshore reefs. They then continued to help carry the bags to the reef restoration sites and continue collecting and bagging shell.
| 14 December 2009
Victories for Cleaner Water drawing closer in Hillsborough and Pinellas
Curb the use of fertilizers during rainy season to help protect fish habitat.
A Coalition of organizations including the Snook Foundation is advocating for strengthened fertilizer ordinances across the state.
Most Florida residents who venture outdoors are aware of the impact fertilizer application has on our water bodies. Ponds, streams and estuaries choked with algae and invasive species are now the norm - they are hard to miss. These choked waterways drain to our coastal areas and affect not only local freshwater but also saltwater fishing and fish habitats.
| 04 December 2009
Many hands make for easier work. Volunteers downloaded bags of oyster shells to create new oyster reefs on spoil island 18b.
Oyster Bagging and Deployment Volunteers Welcome
The 2009 oyster restoration on spoil island SL18B went so well that we need to stop to reload, reported Jim Oppenborn, who is heading up reef restoration projects in Indian River Lagoon.
We will have additional oyster bagging days at Harbour Point Park from 08:30 until noon - watch the Events schedule on this website to get involved in the next bagging day. This is an informal event so feel free to come and leave whenever you wish. The next deployment dates have not been set but we will need enough bags to 1)place the FOS experimental reefs and 2) continue Phase 1 on the north side of the island.
| 16 November 2009
Snook have often been compared to large mouth bass; in some locations, you can catch both and compare for yourself.
.. and groceries.
Largemouth bass and snook from the same honey hole?
Believe it.
In fact, with a little know-how in your pocket, it can be a very productive and consistent little fishery. Don’t worry if you aren’t the researching type, FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) is doing most of the dirty work for us. With a little extra info from some expert anglers, you will be able to connect the dots without leaving your home office.
As you read this, scientists are examining habitat and diet overlap of bass and snook in South Florida’s coastal rivers… precisely the kind of information a “smart angler” should know. With the cooler months of the holiday season on the near horizon, many snook will indeed be heading across the salinity barrier and residing in bass country for at least little while.
| 02 November 2009
Compare your fishing log
Having an understanding of the health, diversity and abundance of fish in our estuaries is a key to understanding the health of the estuary itself.
In Charlotte Harbor, we are very fortunate to have long-term scientific monitoring of fish. The Fisheries-Independent Monitoring (FIM) program was established in Charlotte Harbor in 1989 by the Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI). Although FMRI is now the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) and is now housed in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission,data collection has been consistent
From time to time, collection areas have been expanded and special studies have been conducted in places such as Estero Bay and Lemon Bay. This provides a rich source of data that spans two decades in some areas.
More Articles...
- A Deeper Look into Snook
- Snook Research at Mote Marine Laboratory
- Guest Commentary: Everglades Debate Needs Your Voice
- River Coalition draws new Support from Martin County Commissioners
- Rare Turtle Hospitalized at Mote
- The Grassflat Food Chain
- Today's Big Catch Depends on Baby Having A Happy Home
- Why Study Juvenile Snook?
- Snook as an Indicator Species
- Teen Anglers Set New Oyster Bagging Record
- A Great Wave Rising
- A Coastal Engineer Answers
- Consultants Threaten Beaches
- An Argument for Preservation!
- Snook Foundation Recognized for Contribution to Fish Habitat
- Tracking Tracey, Atlantic Snook Study Underway
- Get Outta the Way Big Guy
- Imagine a Reserve in the Everglades
- FWC Director's Ken Haddad's Message
- The Developmental Stages (Ontogeny) and Associated Habitats of Common Snook
- Swift Mud Warns 16 Counties Are Drying Up
- Pine Island Man Faces Penalties for Mangrove Destruction
- Fines Do Little to Stop Cutting of Mangroves
- One Piece at a Time
- Agency Reconsiders Approval to Dig up Wetlands
- Snook Anglers Play a Role in Snook Tagging Studies
- Snook Foundation Announces formation of Smart Development Workgroup
- Marine Hatchery Expansion in Florida
- Caring About Creatures
- Lake Worth Commissioners vote unanimously to support Reach 8 Protection
- History of the American Lawn
- Keeping Snook Swimming
- Developing Shoreline with Purpose
- Snook Habitat Study
- Fort Pierce Anglers to help in Reef Snook Study
- Saltwater Fishing Spells Big Money in Florida
