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Florida's Cold Weather Fish Kill
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January 26, 2010
Florida's Cold Weather Fish Kill
By Tim Romano
Unless you were living in a hermetically sealed and heated bubble the past couple of weeks (or reside in Hawaii) you probably experienced some of the coldest temperatures in a long time. Most of the country was under a deep freeze for days or even weeks on end.
Unfortunately for many gamefish in Florida, the ruthless cold was a brutal killer. Freezing temperatures were recorded along the coast from the central and southern part of the state for multiple nights in a row. Apparently this is not a good thing for saltwater gamefish that are used to much warmer waters. Many fish died from the extreme cold.
Due to the fish kills, which depending on who you ask ranges from hundreds of thousands to a couple of hundred, the state imposed new rules. These limit the number of fish kept from single fish for some species to none at all for others. Specifically, the snook population took a massive hit with estimates that up to 7% of the entire population died.
While the initial executive orders from the state caused some confusion with the wording, many people thought the entire season was closed for bonefish, tarpon and snook. It actually, "establishes temporary statewide closed harvest seasons for bonefish and tarpon", and reiterates that "catch-and-release fishing for these important game fish species is still allowed." And, "temporarily extends closed harvest seasons for snook statewide."
One silver lining according to Bonefish & Tarpon Trust is that they seem to be collecting some dead bonefish and tarpon for biological samples, "gaining some important biological information from this sad event".
TR
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Comments (12)
I don't remember hearing about anything like this from previous deep freezes - even manitees dying. Hard to fathom water temperatures dropping that much in such a short time for this to occur. I guess these fish are very temp sensitive and didn't have access to deeper warmer waters.
It will be interesting to see how it affects the states fishing industry.
To Mlh there is deeper water close to them that some retreat to but all do not. I don't know? why,I live In mobile and the delta was bank to bank with dead and dieing fish.The birds were in a frenzy eating as many as they could.The hogs were drawn to the waters edge when the fish beached.The specs and mullet made up the majority but there were some rat reds in the dead.It happened last year We scored on several hogs that couldn't refuse the fish offering.It really hurts the mullet fingerlings which are a large part of the redfish diet.Good Luckin your outdoor endeavoirs
Bones particularly are vulnernable even when temperatures vary slightly. Normally they will spend more time on the flats where temperatures are generally warmer, but in this instance even these flats dropped well below the 70 degree limit for survival. Can't speak too much to tarpon or snook but they probably have roughly the same limits. Since bones and tarpon are mostly catch and release it should not affect the sport fishing industry to a great extent, but as is preached on this site please be careful when playing and releasing. Use lighter tippets and don't play them to exhaustion and try to release them without touching or removing from the water.
Just remember there is no such thing as Global Warming.
We have had a fair number of speckled trout die here in NC. During the winter a portion of the population will stack up in brackish creeks making them more susceptible to "cold stun" as the small bodies of water cool more quickly. There aren't any hard numbers on the toll its taken on the speckled trout population but we have had a bumper stock for the past few years which will hopefully help us come out of the winter without too much damage.
Flutterfly, you beat me to the punch. I was going to ask if global warming was to blame for the extreme cold seen over most of the U.S. Where is Al Gore to save us and all the fish??
I was down in Vero Beach in central FL during all this and the dead and dying giant snooks and ladyfish were tough to see. I was there to fish, too, and of course nothing was biting. The pond by our condo was filled with dead tilapia and the big fat snapping turtles would lay up on the shore each day to get their temps up so they could digest their easy meals.
I bhope that the recovery is quick
didn't the fishing make a huge comeback after katrina moved through louisiana? i thought i had heard that the fishing had gotten really good and bounced back quickly. i hope that happens there since fishing is such a way of livelyhood for so many in florida.
Alot of the rebound in Louisana is due to the banning of gill net fishing allowing the fish to get old enough to spawn.We have also seen a great rise in the number of coastal fishing oppurtunities,but the game and fish are limiting the numbers that one can keep for consumption.The charter boats are about to be put out of business because of this.Why put out over a thousand dollars for a few fish.Times are hard here in Alabama.
With global warming, not the fish know where to swim!! :)
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good week !!!
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To Mlh there is deeper water close to them that some retreat to but all do not. I don't know? why,I live In mobile and the delta was bank to bank with dead and dieing fish.The birds were in a frenzy eating as many as they could.The hogs were drawn to the waters edge when the fish beached.The specs and mullet made up the majority but there were some rat reds in the dead.It happened last year We scored on several hogs that couldn't refuse the fish offering.It really hurts the mullet fingerlings which are a large part of the redfish diet.Good Luckin your outdoor endeavoirs
Bones particularly are vulnernable even when temperatures vary slightly. Normally they will spend more time on the flats where temperatures are generally warmer, but in this instance even these flats dropped well below the 70 degree limit for survival. Can't speak too much to tarpon or snook but they probably have roughly the same limits. Since bones and tarpon are mostly catch and release it should not affect the sport fishing industry to a great extent, but as is preached on this site please be careful when playing and releasing. Use lighter tippets and don't play them to exhaustion and try to release them without touching or removing from the water.
We have had a fair number of speckled trout die here in NC. During the winter a portion of the population will stack up in brackish creeks making them more susceptible to "cold stun" as the small bodies of water cool more quickly. There aren't any hard numbers on the toll its taken on the speckled trout population but we have had a bumper stock for the past few years which will hopefully help us come out of the winter without too much damage.
I don't remember hearing about anything like this from previous deep freezes - even manitees dying. Hard to fathom water temperatures dropping that much in such a short time for this to occur. I guess these fish are very temp sensitive and didn't have access to deeper warmer waters.
It will be interesting to see how it affects the states fishing industry.
Just remember there is no such thing as Global Warming.
Flutterfly, you beat me to the punch. I was going to ask if global warming was to blame for the extreme cold seen over most of the U.S. Where is Al Gore to save us and all the fish??
I was down in Vero Beach in central FL during all this and the dead and dying giant snooks and ladyfish were tough to see. I was there to fish, too, and of course nothing was biting. The pond by our condo was filled with dead tilapia and the big fat snapping turtles would lay up on the shore each day to get their temps up so they could digest their easy meals.
I bhope that the recovery is quick
didn't the fishing make a huge comeback after katrina moved through louisiana? i thought i had heard that the fishing had gotten really good and bounced back quickly. i hope that happens there since fishing is such a way of livelyhood for so many in florida.
Alot of the rebound in Louisana is due to the banning of gill net fishing allowing the fish to get old enough to spawn.We have also seen a great rise in the number of coastal fishing oppurtunities,but the game and fish are limiting the numbers that one can keep for consumption.The charter boats are about to be put out of business because of this.Why put out over a thousand dollars for a few fish.Times are hard here in Alabama.
With global warming, not the fish know where to swim!! :)
Lista de emails
good week !!!
Post a Comment