Tarpon undertake remarkable seasonal migrations, traveling hundreds—and sometimes thousands—of miles along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. While scientists have documented these movements, one critical question has remained unanswered: Where do tarpon feed during these epic journeys?
Thanks to new research funded by Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT), we now have the clearest picture yet of the feeding habitats that fuel one of the world's most celebrated sportfish. The findings, published in Movement Ecology, identify the key "foraging landscapes" tarpon rely on throughout their annual migrations and reinforce why conserving these habitats is essential to the future of the fishery.
"This work underscores the importance of approaching tarpon conservation with a regional outlook," said Dr. Aaron Adams, BTT Director of Science and Conservation. "As anglers, we want and need to protect our local habitats, but we also need to work with others around the region to make sure we have strong conservation throughout the tarpon's range."
Led by University of South Florida integrative biologist Dr. Lucas Griffin, the research team combined five years of acoustic tracking data with chemical analyses of tarpon tissues to determine where these fish obtain the energy that powers their long-distance migrations.
The results reveal that although tarpon feed throughout their migrations, a few areas appear to be more important foraging areas.
The study identified three especially important foraging regions: South Florida, the northern Gulf, and the Mid-Atlantic coast. Among these, South Florida stood out as the only feeding region consistently used by tarpon from multiple migratory sub-populations, highlighting its importance to the species and underscoring the need to conserve and restore the region's coastal habitats.
"These fish connect coastlines that look completely separate on a map—from the mangroves of the Florida Keys to the marshes of Louisiana and the Carolinas," said Dr. Griffin. "The tarpon someone catches in the Keys might have spent the previous summer feeding in the northern Gulf. So fisheries across the Southeast depend on habitats hundreds of miles away—damage one place, and anglers feel it up and down the coast."
To uncover these hidden feeding grounds, researchers analyzed tissue samples from 417 tarpon and paired those data with movement information from 85 acoustically tagged fish. By integrating these two datasets, the team was able to estimate not only where tarpon traveled, but where they were most likely feeding over time.
Their findings showed that tarpon frequently obtain much of their food far from where they are eventually caught or sampled. On average, the most likely feeding areas were approximately 300 kilometers (185 miles) away from where they were caught. Blood samples reflected more recent feeding activity, while fin tissue provided a longer-term record of where fish had been fueling up over several months.
"This study underscores an important conservation message: protecting tarpon means protecting the habitats they depend on throughout their entire migratory range—not just where they're commonly caught," said Dr. Adams. "This means that threats such as coastal development, altered freshwater flows, and habitat degradation have consequences far beyond a single location. Impacts to these critical habitats ripple throughout the fishery, affecting tarpon populations and recreational fishing opportunities across the Gulf and Atlantic coasts."
According to Griffin, "The next step is sorting out exactly what tarpon are eating in each of these hotspots. Once we know what type of prey they depend on across the regions—menhaden, mullet, anchovies, crabs—we can make sure these populations are managed with predators like tarpon in mind, not just as isolated fisheries."
BTT invests in science because effective conservation requires a comprehensive understanding of our fisheries and how they function. This study provides another important piece of the puzzle, helping identify the habitats that sustain tarpon throughout their lives and informing the conservation strategies needed to ensure these extraordinary fish continue to thrive for generations to come.