We will tag any dolphin in the
12- to 25-inch range, with anything exceeding 25-inches going in the cooler.
tell. Two dolphin that were tagged off of Cozumel were both eventually recaptured, one off the east coast of Florida and the other off Pensacola. Two different dolphin with two very different paths underscores the need for more dolphin tagging and recovery efforts in the Gulf.
For the taggers, it’s always exciting to know where “their” fish were recap- tured. One of the fish Gates tagged in June 2009 off Marathon, Florida, was
ACAREER IN CONSERVATION
B
ASED IN CHARLESTON, South Carolina, Don Ham- mond has had an interesting
career. His first job entailed working at Charles Towne Landing Nature Center with Jim Fowler who was well known as the naturalist on the TV show “Wild Kingdom.” In 1970, he switched to the Marine Resources Division of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources where he remained for 35 years. “My first year I worked on boats
that were out conducting shrimp counts, which mainly had to do with commercial
fisheries,” said Ham-
gets the fish back in the water 30 sec- onds after it comes across the transom. A fish ruler and a clipboard are ready, in the back of the boat, for writing down the length, date, location and tag number. “We will tag any dolphin in the 12- to 25-inch range, with anything exceeding 25-inches going in the cool- er,” says Gates. “These smaller fish are easy to handle when netting them, removing the hook and then returning to the sea. The bigger fish are unpre- dictable and usually beat themselves up when being handled.” Hammond prefers for these smaller dolphin to be tagged because they have a longer lifespan ahead of them than a more mature bull or cow dol- phin. Dolphin grow fast, with a one- year-old fish averaging 25 pounds, a two-year-old fish likely a trophy, and a three-year-old regarded as a rare sur- vivor. Dolphin make up for their short lifespan with a steady reproduction that traditionally has been able to over- come all odds.
KEEPING TABS
Part of the excitement of participat- ing in any fish-tagging program is knowing the recapture information and Hammond has plenty of stories to
16
recaptured 260 days later by Todd Boring off Miami. And Gates has a lot of fish swimming out there. He fin- ished second for the most dolphin tagged competition in 2010 with 61. The top tagger last year, though, was Phillip Brownell of Coconut Creek, Florida, who tagged and released 71 dolphin, earning him a TLD 30 reel and a Star rod. Currently tags are being placed in dolphin by cooperating anglers in the Caribbean, the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the South China Sea, as well as the Eastern Pacific waters off of Panama. The program is going global, but the hole in the data stream involving the Gulf needs to be addressed. Anglers interested in participating can learn more about the Dolphin Research Program at www.
DolphinTagging.com.
Jeff Dennis is a freelance writer and photographer who grew up on a tidal creek in Charleston, South Carolina, and has been a cooperating angler for the South Carolina’s Department of Natural Re- source’s marine gamefish tagging pro- gram since 1994. He can be reached at
www.Lowcountryoutdoors.com.
www.joincca.org
mond. “By 1971, SCDNR had the foresight and vision to begin work- ing with recreational anglers and developing the Marine Science com- plex at Fort Johnson. In 1974, I remember giving a talk to a local fishing club predicting that limits would come to all saltwater fish.” SCDNR began to partner with fishing tournaments to gather data and begin a census of oceanic pelagic fish that is still ongoing. “I remember serving on a lot of tournament committees, and it was worth it because now South Car- olina’s data sets are some of
the
longest-running and best available sources of information,” said Ham- mond. “Now that same spirit of cooperation is coming to the dolphin tagging program.” Gov. Carroll Campbell picked Hammond to head up the fledgling Governor’s Cup Billfish Tournament Series which is now entering its 24th season, and is well known for its conservation ethic. Finally, Ham- mond helped start the dolphin-tag- ging program for SCDNR in 2002, but it was discontinued in 2005. When he retired, he revived the dol- phin-tagging project and started a new career as the director of the pro- gram that strives to learn all about dolphinfish.
— Dennis TIDE
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