Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks, Inc.









Activities Report for December, 1990





































Submitted by



Mark P. Miller



















Date of Report



January 10, 1991



















Activity Report for December, 1990



Summary of Trips

During the fiscal month of December, only one trip was made. The remaining few module numbers were verified and a dive was made on module 56 in order to take video and make observations. New orientation maps are attached to the end of this report to replace the previous ones of November 1, 1990. The Southeast Modules, located in the southeast corner of the Bill Walker site (FH-2) remains to be surveyed.



During the past month 85 fish were tagged and released. Four previously tagged fish were reported recaptured--one warsaw grouper, and three red snapper.



Module 56

This module is located at the Horn Island Barges (FH-1) just north of Rubble #4 and is listed as ID 28 on the orientation map. It's location was verified on this trip at LORAN coordinates 12404.6-7, 47037.0-36.9, and 29573.1-2. Visibility was only about 15 feet on the bottom and about 30 feet on top.



Observations revealed the module is topless and intact with very few broken pieces of material. Fish observations showed about 150-200 snapper in the 1-2 pound size and two sheepshead. Interestingly there were no trigger fish sighted. This may be due to the module's proximity to Rubble #4 where there are taller structures, more broken material, and more abundant bait fish and food.



Fish Tagging Update

Last month 85 new fish were tagged and released while only four tagged fish were recaptured. Billy Rogers tagged 17 while Mark Miller and Ken Dropco tagged the remaining 68 during the December 15 trip.



One of Billy's fish (#108) was recaught by Darrell Laiche of Gulfport, but only six days later so it showed no growth. Ken caught a tagged snapper, but only four days after Mark first tagged it, so it showed no growth. Mark caught a tagged warsaw about a month after tagging it and it showed a 1.6 inch growth. All of the above fish were caught at the same location where they were tagged. Paul Fowler reported a tagged snapper caught that was tagged back in July by Mark at Rubble #1. It grew 4.6 inches. Paul listed his location as 23 miles south of Pascagoula.



Tagged Fish Recaptures

(for past month of December)

Tag Num Date-1 Date-2 Size-1 Size-2 Growth Rate/Mo.

00128 11/15/9012/15/90 21.70" 23.30" 1.60" 1.54"

49266 7/06/9011/25/90 9.50" 14.10" 4.60" 0.97"

01011 12/11/9012/15/90 12.80" 12.80" 0.00" 0.00"

00108 12/10/9012/16/90 12.00" 12.00" 0.00" 0.00"

Table One