On the Hunt for DOLPHINDATA
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The dolphin tagging program is going global, but researchers are trying to fill in a“data black hole”in the Gulf of Mexico. Text and photos by Jeff Dennis
HEN career marine fisheries biologist Don Hammond retired to run a privately funded dolphin-tagging pro-
gram in 2005, most anglers had little concern about the abundance of the
green fighting machine known as mahi mahi. Fast-forward a few years, though, and the picture isn’t quite so rosy. One statistic shows a two-decade decline of the dolphin fishery in the Gulf that is a cause of great concern for Hammond. The Marine Recreational
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Fisheries Statistical Survey (MRFSS) documents fish catches for the west coast of Florida to Louisiana. Texas has a separate survey. Although the MRFSS survey has faced a lot of scrutiny in recent years, it still showed a significant change in dolphin harvest numbers. The
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