Strike up another win for permit conservation! Thanks to the diligent efforts of a group of 10 anglers from the Washington, DC area, BTT just sent a 21 pound permit swimming away carrying a small satellite tag. This was the first permit satellite tagged in Belize,
and the first permit satellite tagged by a recreational angler.
The satellite tagging effort was part of an ongoing collaboration in southern Belize between BTT, Belcampo Lodge, the Southern Belize Sport Fishing Association, Garbutt’s Lodge, and Costa Sunglasses, and was all in support of Project Belize and Costa’s Project Permit. The goals of the collaboration are to determine what level of fishing effort the fishery can support, to figure out whether the protected areas where the permit fishery occurs is large enough to protect the local population and the fishery, and to identify the links between the fishing areas and permit spawning locations. The satellite tagging effort is addressing the second and third goals.
The angler who caught the 21 pound permit that received new jewelry was new BTT member Per Ramfjord. Per had not caught a permit prior to this trip, and this was one of 3 he caught during the week. The guide who led Per to this historic permit was Victor Jacobs. Per’s able-bodied fishing partner and net-man for the catch was John Irving.
Despite windy conditions, the group caught multiple permit every day of the trip, and had many shots at permit each day.
Special thanks to Frontiers Travel for setting up and helping to sponsor the trip, and to the folks at Belcampo Lodge for hosting.
Also a big thanks to Dennis Garbutt and fishing guides Scully, Oliver, Alex, Yogi, Victor, Chino. Despite windy conditions, anglers caught permit every day of the trip, and learned a lot about permit from their guides. All of the anglers mentioned how impressed they were with the safe handling practices used by the guides when handling, tagging, and releasing permit.