Wahoo Research
October 2024 Update
With funding provided by the Guy Harvey Foundation as well as supporters of the Beyond Our Shores Foundation, in mid-October, we continued our quest to better understand the movements and regional connectivity of wahoo by deploying five satellite tags on wahoo that ranged in size from 46″ to 49″ fork-length off Mona Island in the middle of the Mona Passage. Working aboard Captain Efrain ‘Yunyi’ Gonzalez’s vessel Liqueo, with mates Jesus ‘Milo’ Duran and Carlos Bonet, in two days of non-stop fishing action, we caught seven wahoo and returned five of those with Wildlife Computer’s mrPAT (n=2) and Microwave Telemetry geolocating satellite tags (n=3). Since 2021, our group has deployed 11 satellite tags on wahoo in the Mona Passage. Through this effort we have observed variable movements from Mona Island with short-term movements toward the west and records greater than 10-days toward the east and the western insular platform.
Based off of conversations with anglers involved in this research, these results are surprising given anecdotally anglers believed wahoo did not move much from the shelf habitats they were caught along. For example, our second satellite tag deployment on a 47″ wahoo, caught, tagged, and released next to Buoy 6 off Puerto Rico’s western insular platform, carried the tag for 7.4 days when the tag surfaced within the Dominican Republic’s (DR) exclusive economic zone, a distance of 54.52 miles from the release site. This was our first record to show connectivity, within the Mona Passage, of Puerto Rico’s west coast wahoo fishery with the east coast of the DR. Recently, two of the five tags on the wahoo released surfaced off the southeast coast of DR, indicating wahoo off Mona can move toward the west and enter DR’s south coast wahoo fishery. Of our deployments last year, two of the three fish moved toward the east and Puerto Rico’s west coast which further suggests movements of wahoo within the Mona Passage are highly variable but are certainly conducted between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
November 2023 Update
With funding from the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the Guy Harvey Foundation, and additional sponsors and supporters of the Beyond Our Shores Foundation, our group successfully deployed three satellite tags on wahoo ranging in size from 34″-48″ fork-length in late October off Puerto Rico. The deployments were carried out with the assistance of Captain Efrain “Yunyi” Gonzalez aboard his vessel Liqueo with mates Carlos Bonet and Jesus “Milo” Duran. In addition, Amanda Prieto, a University of Puerto Rico marine science graduate student studying the population structure of wahoo in the western central Atlantic, was onboard to collect tissue samples. From these deployments, we obtained our longest movement record on wahoo to date, with one of the tags carried for 28 days. If you happen to catch a wahoo please take a tissue sample for Amanda’s study. Contact us for more details on sample preservation and shipment.
August 2023 Update
Last month, we put out a request among our network to aid in wahoo tissue sample collection for a study that intends to estimate the genetic connectivity and diversity of wahoo around Puerto Rico and the Western Central Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea by sequencing nuclear DNA from the samples collected. A special thanks to the following captains and vessels who have collected samples so far: Chris Frost, Lightning Strike; Don Gates, Killin’ Time II; Andrew Blake, Trainwreck; Jason Hampson; Early Retirement; Bryant Stokes, Georgetown Hole Marina; Chris Whitley; Pirates Cove Marina. If you catch a wahoo over the next two months, please collect a fin clip for this research. Read below to learn more about our overall research on wahoo or click here to email us for guidance on sample collection and preservation. Thank you for your consideration and support of this important endeavor!
July 2023 Update
In response to the lack of knowledge and data presented in conjunction with the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s (SAFMC) Dolphin-Wahoo Fishery Management Plan with respect to wahoo, beginning in 2021, our group made it a priority to address this challenge. Since then, we have deployed four popup satellite archival transmitters on large wahoo, began a regional conventional tagging component for the species whereby 10 anglers have received wahoo tagging kits, initiated research on international fishery trends, and became engaged in a population structure study with a graduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez (more on that below). In many ways, the step previously
and major differences in movement ecology between species. On top of the likely major differences in water column behavior between dolphin and wahoo, what remains to be determined is whether wahoo follow similar movement pathways described scientifically by our tagging program for dolphin (click here for that information). With support from our sponsors, Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, and engagement with Amanda Prieto-Garcia, a master’s student majoring in Biological Oceanography at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, we hope in the next several years to have a better understanding of wahoo movements and population dynamics in the Western Central Atlantic Ocean. The best part about this ambitious effort is you can help. You can assist Amanda with her work to estimate the genetic connectivity and diversity of wahoo around Puerto Rico and the Western Central Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The success of her research relies on the
availability of high-quality wahoo samples (fin clips and/or white tissue) from various locations around the Western Central Atlantic Ocean. If you catch wahoo over the next several months along the U.S. East Coast or in the Caribbean Sea, cut a 1″ piece of the fin off and freeze the sample along with sampling date, location, and fork-length. Then, we will collect your samples and provide them to Amanda for her research. If you have any questions about this process please email us (Click here). In addition, if interested, you can request a wahoo tagging kit to participate in our conventional tagging component for the species (click here to request a kit). By participating in this research, you can actively contribute to the knowledge of the species’ genetic connectivity, stock structure, diversity, and movement ecology throughout the Western Central Atlantic Ocean and ultimately aid in the development of effective management strategies to conserve our wahoo stock for future generations. Thank you for your consideration and support of this important endeavor!
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