El Pescador Tagging Tournament to Benefit Bonefish & Tarpon Trust from AM Films on Vimeo.
Here’s a cool video from El Pescador Lodge on Ambergris Key in Belize, which features my friend Lori-Ann Murphy (with whom I once spent a fabulous week casting to big trout in New Zealand). As a way to get a read on fish populations in the area, El Pescador hosted a tournament in which all caught fish would be tagged for further study. Here are the details:
El Pescador Lodge hosted the 1st Annual Invitational Tagging Tournament to Benefit Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT) from January 12th to the 16th. The lodge has worked with BTT and their tagging program since 2009. We tag permit, bonefish, and tarpon in order to answer basic questions about population, growth rates, and movements to better understand how to protect both the fish as well as their habitats. The tournament required anglers and guides to not only measure the fish before release, but also to tag bonefish and permit and to take a DNA sample from tarpon by swiping a sponge across their upper jaw. Some 58 bonefish and permit were landed, tagged, and fin-clipped during the 3 days. The Grand Champions are Adam Marton of Chicago, Illinois, and Anthony Cuomo of San Diego, California, along with their guide, Nesto.
This will prove to be a fun and important annual event. For more information, visit the websites of El Pescador and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust.