Assessing red drum spawning aggregations and abundance in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico: a multidisciplinary approach

Many marine fish form spawning aggregations (FSAs) and exhibit meta-population stock structure, affecting reproductive resilience and the optimal spatial scale of management. Red drum use a known FSA site off Tampa Bay (TB FSA site) and another presumed FSA site off Charlotte Harbor (CH FSA site). We studied these sites for 3 years (2012–2014) to assess space use and annual abundance at the TB FSA site using: (i) genetically profiled fish,...