The goal of this study is to continue the direct engagement of volunteer anglers in the cooperative tag-releaseof cobia, tripletail, spotted seatrout and red drum in order to describe the seasonal…

The goal of this study is to continue the direct engagement of volunteer anglers in the cooperative tag-releaseof cobia, tripletail, spotted seatrout and red drum in order to describe the seasonal movements and migratorypatterns of these highly valued sport fishes. The specific objectives to meet this goal include: recruitingvolunteer anglers to join the project s existing participants, tag-release cobia and tripletail in mississippicoastal waters and the adjacent gulf of mexico, tag-release spotted seatrout (13 inches in total length) and reddrum (13-30 inches in total length) in mississippi coastal waters only, analyze tag-release data for the fourspecies listed, and prepare and submit the annual performance report.recognizing that angling effort varies inter-annually based on a number of factors (e.g., weather conditions, fuel prices, unanticipated environmental and economic issues, and the recent covid situation), defining rigidexpected results for this study are not always so straight-forward, however, we propose to direct and coordinateefforts by local and regional volunteer anglers to tag and release up to 1,000 tripletail, 600 cobia, 600 spottedseatrout and 600 red drum during the project period. The proposed project will provide scientific information on the seasonal movements and migratory patterns ofthese four fish species that support mississippi s economically important saltwater recreational fishery.scientific information obtained from this research will benefit the mississippi department of marine resources inthe assessment and management of mississippi s marine fisheries resources and serve to inform other marineresource management agencies having scientific interest in these fishes. The recreational fishing community thattargets these four species is an integral part of the cfrd collaborative sport fish tag-release research willbenefit from study results as well.