Results - Other Finfish

GADNR researcher Chris Kalinowsky with a prized tripletail catch; Chris' pioneering work with acoustic tracking of tripletail marked the beginning of telemetry collaborations between SC and GA DNRs as well as collaborations with FL researchers.

Twelve non-sturgeon finfish species have also been detected in SC and GA coastal waters. These species represent 12 distinct research groups, only three of which also maintain coastal acoustic receiver arrays in these two states. Three of these 12 species were studied by multiple research groups either in adjacent states (i.e., southern flounder in NC and SC and red drum in GA and FL) or in spatially separated states (i.e., black drum in NC and FL). As such, these coastal acoustic receiver arrays were ideally situated to both provide data on migrating fish to regional researchers as well as to ensure that regional researchers connected with each other as a result of their migrating fish.

More than half of all non-sturgeon finfish detection days were associated with cobia tagged as part of a multi-state collaboration (SC, GA, and FL) that was initiated in spring 2016. Tripletail and red drum collectively accounted for 38% of non-sturgeon finfish detection days; tripletail were only detected between March and August, whereas red drum were detected in all months of the year. Observations for nine other species were limited (i.e., 1 to 43 fish-days), but bimodal detection patterns in spring and fall were observed for black drum, summer flounder, and goliath grouper, suggesting seasonal migration of these species past the SC and GA coasts. Detection events for American shad, Bluefish, Great barracuda, King mackerel, Striped bass, and Tarpon through summer 2016 were too infrequent to reveal trends.

Seventy-seven percent of cobia detection days stemmed from acoustic receivers at an artificial reef off the southern coast of SC, and cobia was also the only finfish species detected at the outermost receivers deployed for this study. Tripletail were detected as much as 12 miles from shore; however, only 15% of tripletail detection days occurred >5 miles offshore. Red drum were detected out to 17 miles from shore, but nearly two-thirds of detection occurred between 5 and 10 miles from shore. Three-quarters of black drum detection days and two-thirds of southern flounder detection days occurred within 5 miles of shore; however, all goliath grouper detections occurred between 6 and 9 miles offshore.