533 



Abstract— We examined movement 

 patterns of sportfish that were tagged 

 in the northern Indian River Lagoon, 

 Florida, between 1990 and 1999 to 

 assess the degree of fish exchange 

 between an estuarine no-take zone 

 iNTZ) and surrounding waters. The 

 tagged fish were from seven spe- 

 cies: red drum (Sciaenops ocella- 

 tus); black drum (Pogonias cromis); 

 sheepshead (Archosargus probato- 

 cephalus); common snook iCentropo- 

 mus undecimalis); spotted seatrout 

 (Cynoscion nebulosus); bull shark 

 {Carcharhinus leucas); and crevalle 

 jack (Caranx hippos). A total of 403 

 tagged fish were recaptured during 

 the study period, including 65 indi- 

 viduals that emigrated from the NTZ 

 and 16 individuals that immigrated 

 into the NTZ from surrounding waters 

 of the lagoon. Migration distances 

 between the original tagging location 

 and the sites where emigrating fish 

 were recaptured were from to 150 

 km, and these migration distances 

 appeared to be influenced by the prox- 

 imity of the NTZ to spawning areas 

 or other habitats that are important 

 to specific life-history stages of indi- 

 vidual species. Fish that immigrated 

 into the NTZ moved distances rang- 

 ing from approximately 10 to 75 km. 

 Recapture rates for sportfish species 

 that migrated across the NTZ bound- 

 ary suggested that more individuals 

 may move into the protected habitats 

 than move out. These data demon- 

 strated that although this estuarine 

 no-take reserve can protect species 

 from fishing, it may also serve to 

 extract exploitable individuals from 

 surrounding fisheries; therefore, if 

 the no-take reserve does function 

 to replenish surrounding fisheries, 

 then increased egg production and 

 larval export may be more important 

 mechanisms of replenishment than 

 the spillover of excess adults from the 

 reserve into fishable areas. 



Multidirectional movements of 

 sportfish species between an estuarine 

 no-take zone and surrounding waters 

 of the Indian River Lagoon, Florida 



Derek M. Tremain 

 Christopher W. Harnden 

 Douglas H. Adams 



Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 



Florida Marine Research Institute 



1220 Prospect Avenue, Suite 285 



Melbourne, Florida 32901 



Email Derek Tremainia fwcstate-fl. us 



Manuscript submitted 12 May 2003 

 to Scientific Editor's Office. 



Manuscript approved for publication 



20 January 2004 by the Scientific Editor. 



Fish. Bull 102:533-544 (2004). 



Fishery reserves or no-take sanctu- 

 aries, defined as areas where all 

 fishing activities are prohibited, are 

 increasingly proposed as an addi- 

 tional measure to traditional fishery 

 management practices for protecting 

 fish populations from overexploita- 

 tion (PDT, 1990; Bohnsack and Ault, 

 1996). The American Fisheries Soci- 

 ety recently issued a policy statement 

 on the protection of marine fish stocks 

 at risk of extinction and supported the 

 development of large marine reserves 

 to protect and rebuild vulnerable popu- 

 lations (Musick et al., 2000). Although 

 reserves have been established pri- 

 marily in reef or coastal marine habi- 

 tats, the potential to apply similar 

 management strategies in estuarine 

 systems may also be possible (Johnson 

 et al., 1999; Roberts et al., 2001). 



Reserves in estuarine areas may 

 help protect exploitable fishery spe- 

 cies. Increases in species' sizes and 

 densities within these reserves may 

 also enhance adjacent fisheries by two 

 separate mechanisms. Johnson et al. 

 (1999) found that an existing estua- 

 rine no-take sanctuary on Florida's 

 central east coast protected popula- 

 tions of larger, spawning-age sport- 

 fish species. As a result, they sug- 

 gested that protection of populations 

 in no-take sanctuaries could also lead 

 to the replenishment of surrounding 

 fisheries through increased egg pro- 

 duction, larval export, and juvenile 

 recruitment. Additionally, mark-re- 

 capture data have demonstrated that 

 large juvenile and adult fishes emi- 



grate from estuarine protected ar- 

 eas to surrounding waters (Bryant 

 et al., 1989; Funicelli et al., 1989; 

 Johnson et al., 1999; Roberts et al., 

 2001; Stevens and Sulak, 2001) and 

 these data have been used to suggest 

 that spillover of excess adult fish 

 from estuarine reserve areas can di- 

 rectly supplement nearby fisheries. 

 Roberts et al. (2001) concluded that 

 the abundance of International Game 

 Fish Association based on line-class- 

 record catches in the vicinity of the 

 estuarine no-take sanctuary on Flor- 

 ida's east coast resulted indirectly 

 from protection and spillover of large 

 adults to outlying waters. 



It has also been suggested that re- 

 serves protect areas of undisturbed 

 habitat (PDT, 1990), either by design 

 or through cessation of destructive 

 practices, and reserves are common- 

 ly established in areas of pristine, 

 productive, or otherwise important 

 habitats required by the species be- 

 ing protected (e.g., Russ. 1985). Fur- 

 thermore, studies have shown that 

 protecting fishery species can indi- 

 rectly change the overall community 

 structure (Cole and Keuskamp, 1998) 

 and, under certain circumstances, 

 can increase primary and secondary 

 productivity (Sala and Zabala. 1996; 

 Babcock et al., 1999). The influence 

 of habitat quality on fish movements 

 in relation to protected areas has not 

 been investigated; however, reserve 

 habitats that offer potential advan- 

 tages in the form of improved habitat 

 quality (Chapman and Kramer, 1999) 



