years, for both males and females. Research so far has shed a little light
on where spawning activity occurs. “Tripletail don’t spawn in the estu- ary; apparently it all occurs offshore. We are not sure how far offshore, but all of the mature fish that we exam- ined over the years indicated offshore spawning,” says Franks. Other than their wintertime disappearing act, tripletail don’t move much during the heat of summer. “The majority of tag- recaptures moved less than 100 miles from their initial tagging location, with 50 percent of those moving less than 30 miles.”
The State of Mississippi used infor- mation developed by Franks and Hendon to establish creel and size lim- its for tripletail in 2010, with the state setting a limit of three fish per person, per day and a minimum size limit of 18 inches total length.
The research and the action by Mississippi has drawn the atten- tion of CCA Louisiana, and the organization has been active in the fishery over the past couple of years.
“We think the fish move offshore
during winter months, but we still don’t have much data to support that idea,” says Franks. “Very seldom are tagged tripletail caught in the northern Gulf during the winter time. That is a big unknown, and hopefully the more fish we tag the more we will learn.” Dr. Franks’ work has also indicated fascinating growth rates of the species. During their research they collected some very small, wild fish, placed them in tanks and watched them grow to five pounds and 18 inches in one year. They suspect that similar rapid growth occurs in the wild and believe that the maximum age of tripletail to be 6 or 7
20
The state of Missis- sippi used infor- mation developed by Franks and Hendon to establish creel and size limits for tripletail in 2010, with the state setting a limit of three fish per person, per day and a minimum size limit of 18 inches total length.
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“The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR) funds our tripletail research, so we were very pleased to provide the results of our biological work to the Department’s fisheries managers when they were considering size and bag limits for tripletail,” says Franks. “Based on our research, 50 percent of the females at 18 inches total length were capable of spawning and at 20 inches total length all females were sexually mature.” Dr. Franks points out that Missis- sippi’s new size and creel limits are nec- essary to protect the fishery and main- tain a healthy population of the species. Most of the Gulf states have recognized the need for management of tripletail, as the fishery grows in popularity. “Certainly there has been an in-
crease in fishing for them. We encour- aged the DMR to work on making the tripletail size and creel limits a reality and we are thankful for their action,” said F.J. Eicke of CCA Mississippi. “We
TIDE
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