Good News.... for a change

[oc1]

My news feed had a story about bonefish in Florida.  How did they know?  It recounts thirty or more years of woe for Florida Keys bonefish.  Populations steadily declined until they were almost non-existent due (they think) to water quality deterioration and heavy fishing pressure.  Not good news for the Islamorada economy that relied heavily on the bonefish industry (guides, hotels, restaurants, etc).  So, the Tarpon and Bonefish Trust helped spearhead projects to build sewage treatment plants to reduce pollution and make bonefish a catch-and-release only fishery.. 

Damn, it seems to have worked.  In the last few years the bonefish population has exploded. Things will never return to the good old days, but its substantial better than it has been for a long time.

The article delved into ongoing research to find where bonefish spawn.  Considering how extensively they have been studied you would think they would already know that.  But bonefish move offshore to spawn and they have those weird leptocephalus larvae that take a month to develop and are carried all over the place by currents.

Economists will do anything to raise an eyebrow, but they are saying that a single bonefish over the course of its life can generate $75,000 in returned economic activity to South Florida.  I worship bonefish and have always thought they are under-valued, but seventy-five grand is insane.  Here, they keep them for food so a single fish would be valued at about twenty bucks or less.

The article is from Field and Stream.  I don't know if it will show up in the print magazine but it can be found here:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/bonefish-revival-in-florida/

-steve

[Donnyboat]

interesting, in Western Australia, in the Swan river, I think they call them giant hearing, they arrive on the shallow flats, about November, cheers Don.

[nelz]

So how are they as table-fare? Just curious, I assumed they were not so good. Yeah, I wonder how they come up with those wacky $$$ figures?

[Midway Tommy]

So how are they as table-fare? Just curious, I assumed they were not so good. Yeah, I wonder how they come up with those wacky $$$ figures?

Generally, thin air. 🙄

[jurelometer]

Nice to hear. It sounds like they don't know why the population rebounded, but cleaning up the water and no-take status couldn't of hurt.

interesting, in Western Australia, in the Swan river, I think they call them giant hearing, they arrive on the shallow flats, about November, cheers Don.

Different fish.  Giant herring (Elops machnata) are a type of what we call  ladyfish in the USA. There is a species of bonefish (Abula oligolepis) in the warmer parts of West Australia. I have caught some in Exmouth.  They look similar  to what you folk call whiting.   Pretty much the same technique fishing for them as in in Florida or the Caribbean, except that  they don't hang out as much in the super shallow flats.  From what I have read, same sort of thing in Hawaii.

Those giant herring are an amazing gamefish.  I caught one over a meter long on a flat somewhere in WA, which I guess is on the large size, but not that remarkable.  For those of you that have fooled around with those eight to ten inch ladyfish caught in Florida, or those 12 o 24 inch "sabalo" in Baja, you probably have an idea of what this experience would be like.

BTW, there is also a species of bonefish in Baja  (Albula gilberti) -  I have seen a couple caught when netting live bait.

So how are they as table-fare? Just curious, I assumed they were not so good. Yeah, I wonder how they come up with those wacky $$$ figures?

They are called bonefish for a reason.  They have to be prepared using a method to remove or cook down all those fine bones.  Stuff like fish cakes.  Haven't tried it myself, but a popular food fish for the locals.  Can't be bad with their shellfish diet and and clean water lifestyle.

So how are they as table-fare? Just curious, I assumed they were not so good. Yeah, I wonder how they come up with those wacky $$$ figures?

Generally, thin air. 🙄

Yeah, I'd like to see how they came up with that $75K number. 


-J

[Gfish]

Maybe it's about fertilizer(wastewater) balance. Too much bad and it ruins the ecosystem. The right amount "could" enhance the near shore flats with plant growth to stimulate the food web. Could be the treatment level of wastewater, more steps could make it a better biologic enhancing product. Then there's the hurricane problem...

[oc1]

So how are they as table-fare? Just curious, I assumed they were not so good. Yeah, I wonder how they come up with those wacky $$$ figures?

Here's how they prepare them locally.  Gut the fish and lay it out on a board.  Take a wood rolling pin and pound the fish up and down on both sides.  Then, cut off the tail or cut through the skin on both sides just above the tail. Then take the rolling pin and squish all the meat out by rolling it from the head to the tail.  It is like squeezing all the toothpaste out of a tube.  Then mix in some finely chopped vegetables, seaweed, spices and eat it raw like poke.  Or, make fried fish cakes.  Bonefish are my brothers so I've never tried it. The same technique would probably work for ladyfish.

Though bonefish, ladyfish and tarpon are related they fight completely different.  Ladyfish dance and jump around on the surface while bonefish make bulldog runs at the bottom. Tarpon act like big ladyfish at first and then do the bulldog thing..

[oc1]

Maybe it's about fertilizer(wastewater) balance. Too much bad, the right amount "could" enhance the near shore flats with plant growth to stimulate the food web. Could be the treatment level of wastewater, more steps could make it a better biologic enhancing product. Then there's the hurricane problem...

The Fl Keys had the same problem that Oahu does.  Cesspools and septic systems along the coast leak nutrients into the ocean.  In Islamorada they put in sewer pipes and a modern tertiary wastewater treatment plant.  It took them twenty years to complete it.  More than hurricanes, Florida has occasional cold fronts that make it all the way down to Cuba.  The same weather systems that destroy the citrus crop can kill bonefish on occasion.

[oc1]

Generally, thin air. 🙄

They use a lot of multiplier effects.  If a fisherman hires a guide the guide's pay is counted.   Then when the guide buys tackle or gas the money is counted again.  Then when the tackle shop or gas station employee buys groceries for their family the money is counted again. And on and on. The fisherman's hotel, restaurant and travel expenses are given the same treatment.  They also assume a single fish is caught multiple times over its life.