Pulling in the Tarpon Net
We concluded our monthly, seasonal tarpon research on April 15 with a very exciting morning.
Once each month since November, we’ve had up to 40 volunteers come out on Saturday mornings to assist with this interesting research, including 4 scientists from Florida Fish & Wildlife (FWC).
On the 15th, we had 19 volunteers and they were rewarded with a net pull from the small pond of 19 tarpon, many over 10”. It is the first time we have seen so many tarpon of this size in the net pull from this pond. The second pond yielded no tarpon, as is often the case.
As always, measurements of the netted tarpon were recorded by the FWC team and the tarpon were quickly returned to the water.
With the summer rains and a high tide we expect these large tarpon will move into Lemon Bay.
Volunteers at the April Net Pull: (seated and kneeling, L-R) Logan Stevens, Philip Stevens, Jim Cooper, Glen Heerse, Chris Nalenzi, Michelle Shafron, Saelia Nariner,; (standing, L-R) Jim Pierce, Malcom Collingwood, Ken Royer, Rebecca De Rosa, Anne Royer, Lary Stuhlmiller, Nate Turpin, Ben Turpin, Joe Gallagher, Jim Lajewski,Bob Cooper, John McCurley, Noah Lynn