U.S. East Coast

September 2025 –

Earlier this month, Dolphinfish Research Program (DRP) personnel embarked on our fourth tagging expedition to North Carolina over the last 15 months to enhance data collection on dolphin fishing off the Outer Banks.  In total, through eight outings, our team has tagged and released 212 dolphinfish aboard Marlin Gull, Dr. Ike Blakemore’s 55′ Buddy Cannady, and 8 fish aboard Mr. Joey Colkitt’s Seahorse, a 37′ Grady-White.  From these deployments, five recaptures have been generated, and we have deployed five satellite tags on dolphin and one on a wahoo.  The 30″ wahoo remains at large (image left).  As for the dolphin recaptures, four were short-term recoveries (1 to 4 days at liberty), which were reported by the charter fleet or recreational anglers, and one was a long-term movement to Puerto Rico (275 days at liberty).  In terms of the satellite tags, four of the five tags remained on the fish for 3 days or more, with a maximum monitoring period of 29.11 days.  Two of the five satellite tags provided geolocation estimates, and three fish utilized the Gulf Stream as the fish moved into the North Atlantic.  The average movement rate for those fish was 47 miles per day with an average bearing of 67 degrees or east-northeast from the Outer Banks.  Another key facet of this work is that all fish are being targeted using non-offset circle hooks, and during the recent tagging expedition of the 107 dolphinfish tagged, only 18 were kept due to poor hooking location.

February 2025 –

From 2002 until 2017, an average of 44 dolphinfish were tagged and released off North Carolina (NC) per year.  In 2003, 103 fish were tagged; and in 2010, 2012, and 2014, more than 80 fish were tagged per spring off NC.  Thereafter, tagging participation off NC waned with only 83 fish tagged over an eight year period (2015-2023).  Given this overall low tagging activity, DRP personnel embarked on their first spring tagging expedition since the early years of our tagging program off NC last May, and we continue to obtain results.  Recently, the smallest fish we tagged and released on May 2nd, 2024, fishing aboard Marlin Gull, was recaptured off the north coast of Puerto Rico (PR) by Juan Centeno fishing aboard his vessel Heavy Hitter.  This is the first NC-PR recovery and 8th from the U.S. East Coast to the north coast of the Greater Antilles.  This fish grew from a tiny 16″ 1-lb dolphinfish to a tackle-testing 19.5-lb gaffer.  Its recovery further highlights the interconnectivity of dolphinfish throughout the region and the benefits anglers reap when small dolphinfish are released.  In this article are two figures that showcase this movement.  The figure above focuses on the new movement recorded in February while the figure below includes four similar movements but for dolphinfish tagged and released off of the Florida Keys and South Florida region.  The shorter time at large for the Florida recoveries could be indicative of the fish taking a shorter route to the Greater Antilles inside of Bermuda while the fish tagged off the Outer Banks took a longer route around Bermuda in the North Atlantic.

Figure – Spring and Fall 2024 satellite tag movements for dolphinfish tagged and released off North Carolina.

Figure – Summer and fall 2024 conventional and satellite tag movement for dolphinfish tagged and released off of Rhode Island.

November 2024 –

In late October, a satellite tag associated with a 32″ bull tagged and released while fishing aboard Dr. Ike Blakemore’s vessel Marlin Gull, with Captain Kenny Midgett as well as mates Chris Whitley and Brian Leonard, surfaced in the North Atlantic Ocean just outside of the Canadian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the high seas.  The tag remained with the bull for 26.25 days; it surfaced only 35 miles from the location of a tag that surfaced on June 1st last summer that was associated with a 36″ female.  The 36″ female was tagged and released aboard Marlin Gull on May 3rd and exhibited a very similar movement as the bull.  Upon further investigation of the location where the tag associated with the female surfaced, according to the Global Fishing Watch (GFW) map, apparent foreign pelagic longline (PLL) effort was active in the area.  For the bull, apparent PLL was not detected, but vessels may have been in the area that were not transmitting automatic identification system (AIS) data, which is information used by GFW to calculate apparent fishing effort.  We suspect that these tags surfaced prematurely due to PLL effort.

August 2024 –

While our tag deployments through August is lower than our annual average, our number of recaptures is above average.  Focusing first on tag deployments, in terms of rank across tagging years, 2024 is currently ranked 15th.  One of the main reasons for the low rank could be due to a lack of fish present throughout the Keys and South Florida region during this past July and August.  The Keys and South Florida region represent the tagging zones responsible for the majority of our tag deployments year over year.  This year, however, we have only logged 316 tag deployments during July and August, which is 65% lower than the number of tag deployments between July and August (n = 924) in 2023.  With tag distribution the same across years, either a lack of fish or lack of participation from past taggers contributed to this major difference.  Regarding the former, at least three of our top annual taggers reported a lack of fish in July and August, which was corroborated through vessel tracking data from two of those vessels that acquired lengthy offshore fishing tracks that returned very low catches and tagged fish.  While this year we have received fewer tag reports from the Scouts in Summerland Key, just yesterday, one of their fish was reported as recaptured along the shelf edge near the offshore border of North Carolina and Virginia.  This indicates that even with less participation from the Scouts (n=64 tagged), the recapture generated from a low number of tagged fish is consistent with our overall trend this year of a high recapture rate (2.9%) relative to number of fish tagged.  So far this year, the recapture rate for Killin’ Time II and Wam-Jam, our two top tagging vessels, is 4.9% and 5.0%, respectively.  While these high recapture rates are the norm for these vessels, we have had three other vessels, Luna, Blackfin, and Brown Dawg acquire recoveries from 7 (28% recapture rate), 4 (25%), and 2 (50%) tagged fish.  With several months left in the U.S. East Coast dolphinfish fishery, if we receive four more recoveries, that will push our 2024 recapture level to the top 30% across years, which shows at the least that fishing pressure is high.  In addition, given that the average size of fish recovered were 21″ fork-length when released, an expansion of states involved in the current minimum size and/or increase in minimum size could benefit regions down current from where fish are being released back to the wild.  Click here to read more.

August 2024 –

Tagging Details: Tagged and released by George Ipock aboard Dorado Scout out of the Florida National High Adventure Sea Base in Summerland Key on July 12th, 2024.

Recapture Details: Reporters: Ross Tolson.  The distance between the tag and recovery site for Dorado Scout’s fish was 886.74 miles; the movement rate, based on 47 days at liberty, was 18.86 miles per day.

Our program has logged 7 Florida to North Carolina recaptures in 2024.  This result adds to the 81 previous Florida to North Carolina same calendar year recoveries we have logged since 2002.  Currently, 2024 ranks third out of all years for the number of same calendar year recoveries in NC. The only years that had a higher number of Florida to North Carolina recoveries were 2006 (10) and 2007 (9).

Tagging Details: Tagged and released by David Wamer aboard Wam-Jam with anglers Charlie Jamison and Mikell Reid on June 7th, 2024, off Marathon, FL

Recapture Details: Reporter: Austin Shelton fishing aboard Addiction. The distance between the tag and recovery sites for Wam-Jam’s fish was 761.53 miles; the movement rate, based on 52 days at liberty, was 14.64 miles per day.

Tagging Details: Tagged and released by Paul Bakowski aboard Luna on July 27th, 2024.

Recapture Details: Reporter: Brian Maggard.  The distance between the tag and recovery sites for Luna’s fish was 186.69 miles; the movement rate, based on 19 days at liberty, was 9.82 miles per day.

July 2024 –

Tagging Details: Tagged and released by David Wamer aboard Wam-Jam with anglers Charlie Jamison and Mikell Reid on May 29th off Marathon, FL; tagged and released by Don Gates aboard Killin’ Time II with anglers Allen Lewis and Darryl Williams on June 6th off Cudjoe Key, FL; tagged and released by Chris Frost aboard Lightning Strike on June 1st off Lake Worth Beach

Recapture Details: Reporters: Carson Dunn, Amber Wallace, and Damon Lee Harkey.  The distance between the tag and recovery sites for Wam-Jam’s and Killin’ Time II’s fish was 762.44, and 817.31 miles, respectively; the movement rates, based on 28, and 35 days at liberty, was 27.23, and 23.35 miles per day.  The distance between tag and recovery site for Lightning Strike’s fish was 648.66 miles and the movement rate, based on 39 days at liberty, was 16.63 miles per day.

Tagging Details: Tagged and released by Don Gates aboard Killin’ Time II with angler Angie Gonder on May 19th off Cudjoe Key, FL.

Recapture Details: Reporter: Ryan Foster while fishing aboard Blues at Sunrise with his father and friend.  The distance between the tag and recovery site was 1,064.10 miles, and the movement rate, based on 64 days at liberty, was 16.62 miles per day.

May 2024 –

Tagging Details: Tagged and released by Captain Don Gates aboard Killin’ Time II with anglers Ron Teke, Bryan Longcoy, Angie Gonder  on May 2nd, 19th, and 23rd off Cudjoe Key; Tagged and released by Captain George Garcia aboard Blackfin on April 21st off Long Key.

Recapture Details: Reported by Mike Caitlin (Diehard), David Wicker (Lucky Strike), and Colin O’Connor (Beaut) during May; Reported by Christian Sanchez (Miami Sailfish) on April 30th, 2024.

May 2024 –

Tagging Details: Tagged and released by Captain Rob Bragg aboard Brown Dawg with angler Scott Howell on April 14th, 2024, 65 miles offshore off Georgia.

Recapture Details: Reported by Clayton Pressley (No Shot) on May 1st, 2024

May 2024 – This past month, we deployed our 10th satellite tag in the South Atlantic Bight and first off of North Carolina.  On the morning of May 3rd, while fishing aboard Dr. Iyke Blakemore’s vessel, Marlin Gull, with Captain Kenny Midgett and mates Mark Schultz, Chris Whitley, Bryant Stokes, and Greg Jenkins, we deployed a Wildlife Computer’s mark and report satellite tag on a healthy 36″ female.  This satellite tag was sponsored by Grady-White Boats.  The tag has yet to check in and is expected to remain with the fish for 33 more days.  This is a major step forward in better understanding the movement dynamics of dolphinfish in North Carolinian waters and can help start to determine movement routes fish take from North Carolina to the Mid-Atlantic Bight, Sargasso Sea, Caribbean Sea, and north Atlantic Ocean.

March 2024 – The New England Saltwater Fishing Show is a prime event to run a table effort about offshore pelagic fisheries for the following reasons: (1) Southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic Bight has a large and seasonally substantial offshore pelagic fishery and mahi is a major component of the catch; (2) wind farm leases and the potential move to ropeless trap fishing inject additional issues that are poised to alter fishing success for pelagics; and (3) environmental effects on pelagic fisheries such as climate change are likely to lead to range expansion for species such as mahi.  In early March, our group worked tirelessley over two and half days to inform anglers about the importance of collecting data on mahi off southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic Bight.  Through a successful raffle effort, we were able to raise funds to help support the deployment of a satellite tag on a qualifying mahi in the region.  Congratulations goes out to Chris of Massachusetts, Shawn of Connecticut, Jay of Rhode Island, and Molly of Massachusetts for winning the raffle items.  A huge thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth to learn more about our research, to participate in our raffle to support our work, and to our sponsors for providing the raffle items.

August 2021 – Over the past month, we have received six tag recoveries ranging from the Keys to the offshore canyons in the Mid-Atlantic Bight.  Captains Russel Yates and Robert Clarke are the latest MAB anglers to have recaptured a tagged dolphin that were originally released in the Florida Keys.  These are rare recoveries, as evidenced by the fact that they represent the 21st and 22nd movements logged from the Keys to the MAB over the past two decades.  When compared to past movements, these fish made the swim up the U.S. East Coast faster than previous events (40.5 days versus 57.9 days).  The MAB recoveries were generated by Captain Ed Forrest and Captain Bryan Gilmore fishing off the Lower Florida Keys.

Captain Gary Gambarani and angler Bill Harrington aboard Easton Pool tagged and released a 20″ dolphin in Washington Canyon off Maryland on July 25th, 2020. On September 10th, after weeks of consistent winds held boats back from venturing to the canyons off Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Captain Stephen Viglas recaptured Easton Pool’s fish in Veatch Canyon. This is the 11th within-region Mid-Atlantic Bight recovery for the Dolphinfish Research Program (DRP) but the first canyon-to-canyon northeasterly movement spanning nearly the entire region. When compared with other recoveries reported within Poor Man’s and Wilmington Canyon, mostly from tagging efforts lead by Captains Chris and David Jobes and angler Will Jobes aboard Pair of Docs, the average movement rate of this new recovery is twice as fast as the previous 10 recaptures (6.65 mpd versus 3.36 mpd). This new recovery is a stark contrast to the lingering movements observed within Poor Man’s and Wilmington Canyon and merits the need to tag and release more fish within this region to showcase connectivity between canyons and the movement of dolphin biomass within the region. For this particular recovery, the recapture length is unknown but given the time at large and the average growth rate observed for the program it is likely the fish grew 4” and put on nearly 1 ¾ pounds while at liberty. In the image to the left the numbers represent days at liberty for 7 of the 11 recoveries.

Straight-line distance between tag and recapture sites = 312.59 miles; Straight-line movement rate = 6.65 miles per day; Days at liberty = 47.

U.S. EAST COAST RETURN MIGRANTS

Merten, W., Appeldoorn, R., Hammond, D. 2014a. Movements of dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) along the U.S. east coast as determined through mark and recapture data. Fish Res. 151, 114-121. Click Here for the PDF

Merten, W., Rivera, R., Appeldoorn, R., Hammond, D., 2014c. Diel verticalmovements of adult male dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) in the westerncentral Atlantic as determined by use of pop-up satellite archival transmitters.Mar. Biol. 161, 1823–1834. Click Here for the PDF