Joulters Bonefish Exploration

A major objective of this portion of the expedition was to explore the Joulter Islands for potential bonefish tagging locations. Access to the bonefish flats requires a 15 mile run across the Andros Pocket then working through the coral heads on the reef to reach the creek that leads to the flats. We picked a day when the wind was less than 10 knots so we could visually navigate up the shallow creek. We made the run, worked up the creek into a small side creek where our research had identified the most promising spots for tagging. Like any exploration, nothing is certain except the journey. We anchored the boat in the creek, waded ashore and explored a major portion of the central flats but found no bonefish. Tide, moon phase, temperature... we don't know why they were not there. But soon as the winds die down we will try again and explore other portions. The entire Joulter Island chain covers about 25 square miles. Lot of flats to cover and a lot of potential for our flats research program.

We are leaving today for Highborne Cay in the Exuma Island chain. From where we are now in Chub Cay it is 75 miles away and our route takes us through Nassau where we will refuel and resupply our food stocks. We will also pick up fisheries biologist Don Hammond and also John McMurray from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation program, who will be doing an article on our dolphin tagging work. The weather looks good for tagging next week. With 27 tagged fish so far, we are encouraged that we can place additional tags on dolphin plus place a pop-up satellite tag on a dolphin if we can catch one larger than 25 lbs. I will report more tomorrow night after we get our first crack at tagging in Exuma Sound.