This post was originally published by Blue Tomorrow. Reprinted with permission.
They’re so cute! Earlier this month, thousands of baby redfish arrived by trailer at West Cove, on Louisiana’s southwestern coast. Volunteers then carried them in buckets to waiting boats, which motored them into nearby canals for release.
That was the beginning of their lives in the wild. Until then, they had been growing in a hatchery. In all, about 150,000 young redfish (also known as red drum) were released in the Calcasieu Lake estuary, the Rigolets and waters near Grand Isle.
I’m more of a kayaker than a fisher, but I have been known to combine the two. And if you invite me over for blackened drum, I’ll be there. So more fish in the water is a good thing, as long as the environment is right.
Baby redfish need places to hide and eat. They love marsh creeks, which provide both shelter from predators and smaller animals to eat. As the fish grows, it moves to larger creeks and more open water, where mud flats and oyster beds offer protection and food.
Hatcheries give redfish a good head start. The rest depends on the habitat.
Justin Lyons, a fishing guide in Cameron Parish, made that point when the Louisiana Illuminator asked him about the release. He supported the effort but wanted more investment in the marshes where the fish have to grow.
“Habitat replacement, I feel, is more important,” he said.
The release had financial support from Cameron LNG and Sempra Infrastructure, among others. That’s noteworthy because the LNG (liquid natural gas) industry has long been associated with habitat destruction in Louisiana fisheries. All those ships, docks, and pipelines require a lot of dredging and create other disruptions, too. Where are all of these baby redfish going to live?
Researchers in South Carolina have some insight. They’ve studied hatchery-grown redfish for years. In one experiment at Murrells Inlet, researchers released more than 600,000 tiny redfish in 2003. Later sampling detected no contribution to the overall population from that release. Larger redfish, released in much smaller numbers in other years sometimes did far better. Researchers suspected the inlet lacked enough nursery habitat for the smallest fish. It had extensive oyster habitat suitable for older fish, but few of the marsh creeks that shelter tiny ones.
Louisiana’s project gives scientists a chance to learn more. The hatchery fish can be identified through their DNA. A small fin clip taken from a fish caught later can reveal whether it came from the release. Over time, those encounters should help show where the fish survive and how much they contribute to the population.
That’s a good first step.
But I’d like to see researchers follow these fish for several years and compare findings at each release site. That would allow them to analyze the relationship between population numbers and habitat quality. This information could then be shared with the public. Anglers could follow the experiment and help guide the next release — or marsh restoration project.
Rebuilding a fishery requires a healthy, functioning ecosystem. It’s not as simple as “add small fry and stir.”
