Black drum (Pogonias cromis) movement in Texas bays is reported for fish tagged and released with internal abdominal anchor tags between November 1975 and Augnst 1980. Intrabay movementwas substantial with almost one-half (44%) of the recaptured tagged fish moving more than 10 km. Few fish were returned from the Gulf or from outside of the bay in which they were tagged. Of the fish which left the bay where tagged, 75% were recaptured in adjacent bays. There were no significant differences in movement patterns among bay systems nor was there a detectable relationship between minimum distance moved by black drum and either time free until recapture, seasons, or size of fish. No mass migration of fish in the winter or during the spring spawning period was noted. Texas bay systems can be considered closed systems for fish of about 210-510 mm long (total length) when managing black drum stocks. Due to their substantial intrabay movement but restricted interbay movement, local populations of black drum may be susceptible to intense fishing pressure.
Operational modifications on the basis of meteorological conditions and angler activity patterns can be successfully formulated to improve harvest-sampling efficiency without a significant loss of information. A savings in time and money could be realized if days in which two or fewer interviews would be made because of inclement weather could be identified and sampling on those days were canceled. This study was conducted to determine the amount of interview and harvest data that would be missed coastwide and within individual bay systems in Texas if sampling were canceled on days predicted to have bad weather conditions and little or no angler activity. A multiple-regression analysis was used to relate the effect of day type, wind speed, air temperature, and rain on angler activity. For ease of use, predicted data were plotted on nomographs. The percentages of interviews and harvested fish that would have been missed coastwide by canceling bad sample days during the low-use season (21 November-14 May) were less than 4 and 3%, respectively. An average of 23% of the weekday and 4% of the weekend day samples would have been canceled coastwide during the 2 years of this study, thus allowing the annual redirection of 420 personnel-hours and nearly US$6,000 in operating expenses.
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