comprehensive conventional tagging program 

 on Florida bonefish. He met with no success, 

 however, presumably due to the failure of the 

 dart tags used. This current research thus repre- 

 sents the first attempt to use ultrasonic telem- 

 etry for this purpose. 



Methods and Study Sites 



This investigation was conducted in waters 

 around a series of small islands or "cays" at the 

 East End of Grand Bahama Island. The general 

 environment here consists of mangrove, sand 

 flats, creeks, lagoons, and offshore reefs. The 

 north shores of these cays border the shallow 



waters of the Little Bahama Bank, while their 

 south shores merge with the waters of the North- 

 west Providence Channel. Areas in which bone- 

 fish populations were frequently observed were 

 selected as tagging and tracking sites; these 

 areas are locally known as McLean's Town, Big 

 Harbor, Little Harbor, Thrift Harbor, and Big 

 Creek (Fig. 1). Each site represents a somewhat 

 different habitat type: Portions of several are 

 situated in protected lagoon areas between 

 Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama Islands, and 

 portions of others are located in shallow 

 backwaters of East End, Grand Bahama, while 

 two other locations are adjacent to open ocean 

 and coral reefs. 



Figure 1.— Grand Bahama Island with inset of 

 study areas in the vicinity of East End. Arabic 

 numerals represent tracking sites at the following 

 locations: 1) McLean's Town, 2) Big Harbor. 3) 

 Little Harbor. 4) Thrift Harbor, 5) Big Creek. 





f, Little! <3 



t Bahama ^J 



v J Bank 



Great 

 Abaco 



Northwest 

 Providence Channel 



1 2 



_i i 



Scale 1 50.000 



[■'.] - tracking sites 



149 



