Recruitment and Trophic Dynamics of Snook

Common snook, Centropomus undecimalis, have expanded the northern limit of their range from the Tampa Bay region to the Suwannee River region in Florida over the last decade. This research seeks to describe the recruitment dynamics of snook in the Suwannee River region and estimate the trophic impacts of snook on two other economically important species in the region, red drum, Sciaenops ocellatus, and spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus. The recruitment dynamics will be estimated via stable isotope analysis of ?13C and ?18O in snook otoliths. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fisheries Independent Monitoring (FIM) group have collected age-0 snook otoliths from 2016-2020 from three estuaries along Florida’s Gulf coast and adult snook otoliths from the Suwannee River region dating back to year class 2012. Stomachs were collected from these three species caught by FIM from January 2021 to February 2022. The contents of these stomachs were visually analyzed. Many prey items found in the stomachs were unidentifiable fish (353 of 839). The resolution of the diet data will be increased by analyzing unidentifiable fish using DNA barcoding. Understanding recruitment dynamics and trophic interactions in the expanded range will allow for better management of these ecologically and economically important species.