Division, nonprofit team to tag red drum, track by satellite

Red drum are widely known among coastal recreational anglers as one of the more fun fish to hook, particularly to those who love a good fight.

David Deuel grappled almost a mile down Hatteras Island’s Avon beach before landing the world record drum, a whopping 94 pounds, 2 ounces, in early November 1984.

But for a fish that’s one of the more popular recreational catches in North Carolina — it’s the official state saltwater fish — much remains unknown about red drum, where they spawn, their migration patterns, the distances they travel and where they go.

A two-year pilot satellite tagging study launched this month aims to unlock some of those mysteries.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries in partnership with the North Carolina Marine & Estuary Foundation, will tag 20 mature red drum, or those stretching more than 32 inches long, collected next month during the division’s annual longline red drum survey in the Pamlico Sound.

This will kick off the first of two phases during the first year of the study, one that includes testing two different tagging methods. The first method will be by attaching the tag with a monofilament leader line through the musculature of the fish, allowing the tag to stream above the back dorsal fin. The second attachment method is the more conventional of the two and would allow the tag to stream closely to the side of the fish without interfering with its fins.

Marine technology manufacturer Desert Star Systems created the solar-powered SeaTag-GEO pop-up satellite tags to send daily transmissions from a fish to the ARGOS satellite to computer software that tracks the fish’s locations.

Each tag is about 7 inches long and weighs a little less than 1.5 ounces. The tags are one-time use.

During phase one of the study, division officials will be able to review the performance of the tags themselves, whether they pop off of a fish on the date they were programmed to detach (up to three months).

Data is collected daily until the tag detaches from the fish. Once the tag surfaces, it will pinpoint its final location and an accurate range of temporal and spatial data from the fish.

“This is an exciting new science for North Carolina that we will hopefully use to answer key questions and more,” said Cara Kowalchyk, red drum project lead biologist with the division. “This first year is a pilot study to learn what we can, but we just want to keep expanding. We want to keep being innovative. We want to provide positive engagement and focus on a species that is economically and socially important.”

The second phase of the project, which is expected to be complete in October, will also take place in Pamlico Sound.

During this phase, 14 fish will be tagged by division officials with the help of local fishing guides, people who know where the fish are and can take those officials to specific parts of the coastline “that we may not get through our predefined survey,” Kowalchyk said.

Tags attached to those 14 fish will be programmed to pop off at various durations, anywhere from four to six to 12 months. The additional tracking time will document more wide-ranging movement of red drum and allow researchers to pinpoint spawning sites and offshore migration locations.

Only trained division personnel will do the actual tagging. At $1,300 a pop, the tags aren’t cheap.

That cost, along with the $65 per tag, monthly subscription required to transmit recorded data from the tag to the software, has been covered by the Marine & Estuary Foundation, which approached the division about a year ago with the idea to use satellite technology to learn more about red drum.

“One of the things that we do frequently is look at the (fisheries) management plans that are developed either by the state or by the federal entities and look at their research recommendations that they put out and say, ‘OK, what are their needs here and if there are needs, can our foundation help meet those needs?’” said Chad Thomas, the nonprofit’s executive director. “So, in this specific example, one of the needs for red drum was to better understand how those fish are moving in and out of the inlet, specifically, where do they spawn, how often do they come inshore.”

Red drum are among five species the foundation “really has a focus on,” he said. The others are striped bass, flounder, weakfish and speckled trout.

“Those are the top five of what we consider our inshore coastal fisheries and whatever we can do to further the science with those five, in particular, and our understanding and our strong assumption is that when you improve the knowledge base for those five, then you’re going to improve the populations of many, many other fishes using those same habitats,” Thomas said. “It’s a great, great opportunity, I think, to look through the species that are so important to North Carolinians and say, ‘OK, how can we get better science?’”

The foundation will eventually have on its website a short educational video about the tagging efforts later this year.

Thomas said the foundation will be developing a budget and “hope to be able to strongly support the project for next year.”

The second year of the study will focus on tagging red drum in the open ocean. Tagging will be divided into two groups of red drum – one north of Cape Hatteras and the other south of the cape. Exactly how many fish will be tagged next year will depend on how much funding the program receives.

“We are going to be one of the first states implementing this, but we would love to lead the way for other states,” Kowalchyk said. “Since the northern and southern stock boundary is the North Carolina, South Carolina border, we would maybe love to participate with South Carolina, see if there’s stock mixing across that border or, with climate change, whether we’re seeing northward movement more regularly to Virginia, and partner with them. Just what we will have this year is exciting on its own and it will provide very valuable information.”

Recreational fishing guides interested in volunteering in the program may contact Thomas at cthomas@ncmefoundation.org or Kowalchyk at cara.kowalchyk@deq.nc.gov