Marine - Species - Tarpon

Recreational Fishery in SC

Tarpon Recreational Fishery Graph

South Carolina is at the northern end of the distributional range for tarpon and this is reflected in the highly cyclical nature of recreational catches. Peak year alternate with years of no reported catch and there are periods as long as 5 years without any reported recreational catch. Most tarpon caught in South Carolina are released alive with the only record of harvested fish occurring in 1987. There have only been three years (2002, 2004, 2010) with any reported catch since 2000.

There are no reported commercial landings for tarpon in South Carolina.

The recreational catch data is provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which conducts phone and angler-intercept surveys to monitor angler activities and catches. For more information see: https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

The commercial fisheries data is provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which compiles commercial information provided by state agencies. For more information, see: https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/.

Additional Graph Information

Commercial and recreational catches are measured in number of individuals or pounds of fish caught. Changes in catch among years may be the result of changes in abundance, fishing effort, or a combination of the two.

On each graph, the horizontal dotted lines above or below the "10 year average" represent one "standard deviation" unit, which is a measure of how variable the annual data are around the 10-year average. In general, the area between one standard deviation above the mean and one standard deviation below the mean includes approximately 68% of all values. Approximately 95% of observations in the data set are found within two standard deviation units of the average and is referred to as the prediction interval.