Sutter et al.: Movement and stock affinities of Scomberomorus avails 



323 



the Ft. Pierce region (southeastern Florida winter 

 substock), which would be included within the scope of 

 the Gulf stock, were mistakenly classified 29.40% of 

 the time with Atlantic stock waters. Most of these 

 misclassifications were temporal in nature, the recap- 

 tures having been taken during summer months from 

 southeastern Florida. The low affinity-index value for 

 summer-month releases from Jupiter (southern Florida 

 summer substock) is a result of fish being recaptured 

 within either the Florida Keys winter substock 

 (31.22%) or the southeastern Florida winter substock 

 (10.58%) areas, yielding a total misclassification of 

 41.80% of Atlantic stock with Gulf stock waters. 



Southeastern Florida waters are important to both 

 Atlantic and Gulf stocks. Both stocks occupy this area 

 during some part of the year; the observed seasonal 

 overlap may range from 29.40% to 41.80% (Table 3) 

 based on percent misclassification. The management 

 problems of a mixed-stock fishery system are recog- 

 nized (Hilborn 1985, Sinclair et al. 1985). For effective 

 management an accurate distinction between stocks is 

 vital (Misra 1985), yet genetic differentiation using 

 electrophoretic variation has not yielded any differ- 

 ences between Gulf and Atlantic stocks of king 

 mackerel (May 1983, Johnson 1988). An alternative 

 management strategy, therefore, may be to designate 

 the area between the Collier/Monroe line on the 

 southwestern Florida coast and the Florida/Georgia 

 line on the Atlantic coast as a mixing zone, to be 

 managed with the most conservative measures 

 available (i.e., Gulf or Atlantic stock) to ensure ade- 

 quate stock protection. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank all the FDNR personnel who willingly as- 

 sisted in the tagging trips. The many commercial and 

 recreational fishermen who returned our tags with the 

 associated information are also gratefully acknowl- 

 edged. The helpful suggestions and editorial comments 

 of R. Crabtree, B. Mahmoudi, M. Murphy, and J. Kim- 

 mel are greatly appreciated. We give special thanks to 

 the FMRI editorial staff. Partial funding for this 

 research was provided by grants from NOAA, U.S. 

 Department of Commerce, to the Florida Department 

 of Natural Resources under funding from P.L. 88-309 

 and P.L. 99-659. 



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