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Trends in Puffer Fish Abundance

The Fisheries-Independent Monitoring (FIM) Program provides trends in puffer fish abundance.

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The Fish and Wildlife Research Institute's Fisheries-Independent Monitoring (FIM) program is a long-term program designed to monitor the relative abundance of fishery resources in Florida’s major estuarine, coastal, and reef systems. Fisheries-independent information is collected by scientific personnel using a statistical sampling design and a variety of fishing gear (e.g., seines, trawls, dropnets, gillnets). Data collected under this framework is not subject to the biases associated with commercial or recreational landings data and can be used to track trends in abundance over time. Out of the suite of gear currently in use, a large seine (183 m) is most effective at targeting adult puffers in their most-frequented habitats. The 183-m seine gear was implemented as part of the stratified-random sampling (SRS) component of the program in Charlotte Harbor during 1996; in Indian River Lagoon, Cedar Key and Tequesta during 1997; and in Apalachicola Bay during 1998.

The figure below summarizes catch rates of southern puffer in two segments of the Indian River Lagoon, Tampa Bay, and Charlotte Harbor since 1996. These data indicate an increase in the relative abundance of southern puffer in the northern Indian River Lagoon since sampling began in 1997.

The pattern is similar for checkered puffer catches (depicted in the figure below) for which an increase has been observed in the northern Indian River Lagoon since 1997.