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Fishery Bulletin 102(3) 



the spring (Springer and Woodburn, 1960; Jennings, 

 1985; Tucker and Barbera, 1987). In the northern por- 

 tion of the IRL, where the NTZ is located, the closest 

 access to the coastal environment is through two inlets 

 located approximately 75 km (Sebastian Inlet) and 100 

 km (Ponce de Leon Inlet) swimming distance away or 

 through an intermittent lock opening at Port Canaveral 

 approximately 12 km to the south. In order to reach 

 nearshore or tidal-pass spawning habitats, species must 

 first migrate to these locations. The coincidence of tag 

 recoveries from these areas during identified spawning 

 or migration periods likely indicated that the relatively 

 long movement distances we observed resulted from a 

 combination of geographical, environmental, and bio- 

 logical factors, including the proximity of the NTZ to 

 habitats that are important for specific life-history re- 

 quirements of individual species. From a management 

 viewpoint, these relationships can affect the spatial 

 extent of species' migrations in relation to protected 

 habitats, as well as the degree of protection provided to 

 individuals that are migratory, and should be consid- 

 ered carefully in the design of estuarine reserves. 



This study documented the ingress of exploitable es- 

 tuarine sportfish species into protected habitats and 

 demonstrated that these movements can also cover sub- 

 stantial distances. Species moving towards the NTZ 

 traveled distances of at least 10-75 km. The original 

 tagging locations of these fish were distributed through- 

 out the northern Indian and Banana rivers and southern 

 Mosquito Lagoon, which paralleled the primary region 

 of our tagging efforts. Whether or not fish from more 

 southerly locations in the IRL system would migrate 

 into the NTZ is largely unknown because of the lack 

 of tagging effort in those areas. However, for tropical 

 species such as the common snook, permit (Trachinotus 

 falcatus), gray snapper, and others whose abundances 

 increase seasonally in the northern lagoon habitats dur- 

 ing the warmer months (Tremain and Adams, 1995), it 

 seems probable that seasonal movements could bring 

 them into contact with the protected habitats. In such 

 cases, these species would benefit only temporarily from 

 fishing protection until their return migrations made 

 them again vulnerable to capture. In contrast, species 

 observed migrating into the NTZ that typically have a 

 high degree of site fidelity during specific life-history 

 stages, such as the red drum (Beaumariage, 1969; Ad- 

 ams and Tremain. 2000), black drum (Murphy et al., 

 1998), and spotted seatrout (Moffett, 1961), should de- 

 rive greater long-term benefits from reserve protection 

 following immigration into protected areas. 



Tagging studies that examine the transfer of fishery 

 species between reserve and outlying habitats are rare, 

 and we have found only one recent study on any fishery 

 species, the American lobster (Homarus americanus\, 

 that investigated the effects that multidirectional spe- 

 cies migrations may have upon protective reserve func- 

 tions (Rowe, 2001). Studies in which fish movements 

 have been examined, in both estuarine and marine 

 protected areas, have focused exclusively on fish egress 

 from reserve habitats (Bryant et al., 1989; Buxton and 



Allen, 1989; Funicelli et al., 1989; Holland et al., 1996; 

 Zeller and Russ, 1998; Johnson et al., 1999. Stevens 

 and Sulak, 2001) or on home ranges of species associ- 

 ated with reserve habitats (Eristhee and Oxenford. 

 2001; Starr et al., 2002). In the present study, we simul- 

 taneously examined both egress and ingress of sportfish 

 in relation to a no-take reserve and the surrounding 

 unprotected waters, and the results provide a starting 

 point to quantitatively discuss the relationship between 

 fish emigration and immigration, as well as the implica- 

 tions of such movements to the resulting functions of 

 replenishment to or withdrawal from nearby estuarine 

 fisheries. When all recapture sources were considered, 

 the ratio of migrating to nonmigrating individuals was 

 much higher for fish tagged inside the NTZ (1.58) than 

 for those tagged outside the NTZ (0.05); this ratio im- 

 plies that there is a spillover effect from the reserve. 

 However, this difference is less apparent when measured 

 against the large disparity between recapture effort 

 from inside the NTZ (12-24 FMRI sampling days/year 

 + 12-24 angler days/year) and recapture effort from the 

 surrounding lagoon waters of Brevard County (50-100 

 FMRI sampling days/year + 114,000-181,000 angler 

 days/year [FMRI. unpubl. data]). Furthermore, this 

 direct comparison assumes that recapture potential was 

 the same in protected and unprotected areas, which is 

 unlikely given the differences between the primary re- 

 capture gear used in scientific research activities inside 

 the reserve (nets) and the gear used in recreational an- 

 gling outside the reserve (hook and line). There were no 

 reliable estimates of sportfish species landings available 

 for the limited study region that could have enabled 

 us to intercalibrate for these differences; therefore. 

 we limited further comparisons to only data recovered 

 through FMRI sampling activities in the northern Ba- 

 nana River basin. This limitation came at the expense 

 of important tag-recovery data collected by anglers or 

 collected from more outlying areas of the lagoon but 

 permitted a more quantitative comparison of migra- 

 tion potential that focused comparisons on immediately 

 adjacent areas where the effects of spillover would most 

 likely be realized (Buxton and Allen, 1989; Russ and 

 Alcala, 1996). In these comparisons, a disproportionate 

 number of fish were tagged inside the NTZ, but overall 

 tag-recovery rates for fish originating in both the NTZ 

 and the adjacent Banana River were equivalent. This 

 finding indicated that tagged individuals from both 

 areas were equally susceptible to recapture. However, 

 there were substantial differences in the migration 

 patterns of fish between the two areas. In the vicinity 

 of the NTZ, the relative potential for overall sportfish 

 migrations (primarily for red drum and black drum, 

 which provided the greatest quantity of tag recovery 

 data) towards the NTZ from unprotected habitats (52%) 

 was greater than the potential for migrations out of the 

 NTZ (5%). 



Two potential limitations must be considered when 

 comparing these migration rates. First, it is possible 

 that recreational fishing in the upper Banana River 

 could have reduced the number of tags available to FM- 



