The Panama City and Port Aransas Laboratories tagged and released 2,731 king and 745 Atlantic Spanish mackerel in a 1975-78 study of their movements and migration. From those releases, 59 (2.2%) of the king mackerel and 44 (5.9%) of the Atlantic Spanish mackerel were subsequently recaptured. The tagged recoveries revealed an annual migration by king mackerel from south Florida waters north to the northeast coast of the Gulf of Mexico and west to south Texas waters in the spring and return to south Florida in the fall. Mixing of Gulf fish in the winter with Atlantic fish north to Ft. Pierce was disclosed by tagged recaptures. Fragmented evidence was obtained that Atlantic Spanish mackerel make an annual migration from wintering grounds off south Florida and Campeche-Yucatan to summer grounds along the northern Gulf coast and a return migration in the fall.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)