HISTORY BEING MADE HERE!

Executive Director of the North Carolina Marine & Estuary Foundation hold a fine Carolina Bull Red with a satellite tag affixed and ready to send information to satellites overhead for a ground breaking research project.

We are excited to be a part of a ground breaking project going on here in North Carolina on our beloved Sounds! We have teamed up with our partners at the North Carolina Marine & Estuary Foundation to catch and fit bull red drum with satellite tags to be released back into the deep and monitor their movements to give us insight into where they spawn, how far they travel, how often they move in and out of our inlets and where they go once they leave our Sounds.

First an ID tag is affixed under the dorsal fin.

Our recent trip owes it's success to CAO regular Captain Scooter Lilley. Scooter agreed to do this because he feels he owes a lot to the red drum and wants to give back. We feel the same! We met up with Executive Director Chad Thomas who's been preparing and training for the tagging operation with their partners the NC Division of Marine Fisheries. This is really nothing new for Chad because before joining NCMEF, Chad had a 30-year career with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, where he worked as a coastal fisheries biologist and later as the Coastal Region Supervisor in the Division of Inland Fisheries.

Next, a little further back, a stong piece of monofilament is pushed through the muscle to attach the satellite tag to.

Popping corks have been effective this year and as we pulled up on our first spot we could see bait disrupting the surface of the water all around us. It was just a matter of time before a nice bull ate my bait below the cork that was disrupting the surface of the water and I brought him to the boat. We quickly netted it and laid it in a special trough that helps Chad control, measure and tag the fish. First a regular tag was inserted into the muscle just under the dorsal fin. Then Chad quickly pushed a heavy needle through the muscle further back and slid a heavy piece of monofilament through the tiny hole and then affixed what looks similar to one those fake candles you put in the window during Christmas with and oversized fake flame on top. While Chad was doing this work, I kept kept fresh water from the sound running over his gills via a small pump chad had brought. This worked very well and kept the fish calm and vibrant.

Satellite tag affixed to the drum.

After a certain amount of time, the satellite tag will "pop off" allowing a large amount of information to be uploaded to a satellite and then down to a server to allow biolgists to understand more about the habits of these fish.

After chad connected everything and ensured the tag was working correctly he spent some time putting it in the water and making sure it was revived and ready to go.

We repeated this process over and over again till all the tags were deployed. It was a long day but we were excited to be a part of such a groundbreaking event. Which will help us learn more about these fish and in turn help us protect one of our greates fisheries in the state!

You can watch it all take place here! https://youtu.be/KFixmQsTr3M

To learn more about the satellite tagging project go here! https://www.ncmefoundation.org/

Long live the Red Fish!

Executive Director Chad Smith releases a redfish connected to a satellite tag.

Captain Scooter Lilley and Chad Thomas admire a fine bull red just before attaching a satellite tag to for ground breaking research in North Carolina for Red Fish

Captain Scooter Lilley, host Chris Douglas and Executive Director Chad Thomas hold one of the first Red Drum to be satellite tagged in the Pamlico Sound of North Carolina.