Research Tracks New England Albies to Florida

Feature Photo: A school of false albacore chasing bait along the remnants of a nearshore shipwreck off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. Captured by photographer Paul Dabill.

As many of our advocates already know, launching The Albie Project was a nerve-wracking process for the ASGA team. Nearly three years after the inception of this dynamic project, we’re insanely proud of everything we have learned, what we’re poised to learn and how these findings can drive progress for fisheries management.

In Episode 124 of The Guide Post Podcast, Ed Kim from the New England Aquarium stopped by to provide a review of the research framework and new insights on data returns that have unveiled another critical area in the life cycle of false albacore.

The latest notable pile of data returned from the Treasure Coast of Florida. Our network of inshore and nearshore guides along the east coast of the Sunshine State has already been contributing to traditional (spaghetti) tag deployment for the project. These communities boast their acclaimed access to giant albies throughout the spring and summer. Many of these fish tip the scales to 15-20+ pounds. These “not so little” tunnys drive angling tourism, even in a state with immeasurable species diversity that often looks to label underappreciated species in the “junk” category.

As we recently learned, a group of albies tagged near Cape Cod last Fall pinged off receivers in a new region of Florida. This draws direct connections between the Cape & Island fisheries and a previously unrecorded stretch of the coast (Vero Beach, Stuart, Hobe Sound, Jupiter, West Palm).

Episode 124 of the Guide Post Podcast provides a deep dive into the latest data from The Albie Project with the American Saltwater Guides Association and the New England Aquarium.

You can listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

We’re extremely excited for project expansion in the fall of 2024. None of this would be possible without great project sponsors who continue to find creative ways to support innovative fisheries science. We would be remiss not to shine a bright line on Simms Fishing’s new eCommerce Give-Back Platform.

In addition to being one of the industry-leading apparel manufacturers, Simms has added to their resume with the launch of a new platform that allocates a percentage of web sales to multiple worthy conservation groups. ASGA is proud to be one of the four initial recipients. At checkout on the Simms website, anglers can choose to contribute 1% of their purchase to any of the feature campaigns with no additional financial costs. ASGA’s campaign fundraising goal is set to cover the purchase of two (2) additional telemetry tags for The Albie Project. You can learn more about the program in this release from Fly Fisherman Magazine.

A special thank you to the entire Simms team for their continued support of The Albie Project.