Red Snapper: Ecology and Fisheries in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico

Movers and Stayers: Individual Variability in Site Fidelity and Movements of Red Snapper off Texas

Sandra L. Diamond, Matthew D. Campbell, Derek Olson, Yuning Wang, Jason Zeplin, and Steven Qualia

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569971.ch11

Abstract.—Site fidelity and movements of red snapper Lutjanus campechanus off the coast of Texas were estimated from two tagging programs conducted aboard recreational boats. In one program, we tagged 5,614 red snapper at over 200 fishing sites between July 2002 and August 2005 using hook-and-line gear; fishermen and others reported 130 recaptured fish (a 2.3% return rate), 82 of which included location data. About 54% of the recaptured fish had moved, with an average movement of 20.4 km. In the other program, over 9,000 fish were tagged between 1983 and 2006, but only 68 records of fish tagged between 1986 and 2000 could be analyzed due to computer problems. Of the recaptured fish, 60 could be analyzed for movement, and 17 fish (28%) had moved an average of 19.1 km. Important predictors of movement in at least one program or analysis were depth, habitat type, isolation of the initial capture location, time at liberty, and fish size. Red snapper showed a higher probability of movement from capture sites that were in deep water (>40 m), natural rather than artificial structures, and isolated from other sites rather than clustered. Differences in movement from natural versus artificial sites may have been related to red snapper ‘sub-cohort’ behavior, (the tendency of small groups of red snapper to associate together), as the majority of fish that moved were members of sub-cohorts. Larger fish had a higher probability of movement than smaller fish. In one program, fish movements increased with increasing time at liberty, which is similar to past studies on red snapper site fidelity. In the other program, movements decreased with increasing time at liberty, but this was probably a bias caused by the spatial and temporal scale of the recapture effort. Red snapper that moved showed a higher average daily growth rate between capture and recapture than fish that were stationary, suggesting that movements may be beneficial for red snapper. The spatial scale of fish movements in this study, although larger than in other studies without hurricanes or translocation of fish, was still small enough to support the idea that red snapper populations in the northern Gulf of Mexico are relatively isolated, and that there may be a separate demographic stock off Texas.