The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries welcomes volunteers to sign up for our annual fall acoustic telemetry tagging event.
The event will take place during the week of November 16.
This study, held in the spring and fall of each year since 2012, is part of our ongoing efforts to learn about the movements and habitat types of spotted seatrout, red drum and bullsharks in Lake Pontchartrain.
Since the program’s inception, biologists have tagged 218 speckled trout, 56 red drum and 18 bullsharks.
In order for the program to succeed, the department depends on volunteer anglers to capture fish and carefully transport them to a nearby LDWF surgery boat. There, the fish are weighed, measured, tagged with an external dart tag and surgically implanted with an acoustic tag. Tagged fish are held in a recovery tank for a minimum of thirty minutes to ensure a healthy release.
Anglers interested in volunteering may email LDWF Biologist Ashley Ferguson at [email protected].
Data collected by this program is documented online. Click here to view movement trends of all acoustically tagged fish.
Additionally, LDWF asks that any angler who captures a fish with a blue dart tag please call the number provided on the blue tag (800-567-2182) and report the date, time, catch location and health of fish when released.
Ashley Wethey contributed to this story.
