WHAT IS PANAMA TARPON CONSERVATION?

 One of the greatest pound-for-pound fighting fish in the world next to the Blue Marlin is the Silver King, (Megalops atlanticus) the Atlantic Tarpon. It is probably one of the most exciting game fishing experiences, and most anglers don’t realize their prized catch is a dinosaur.  Tarpon has been around for 100 million years when the Isthmus of Panama was still underwater and the continents were separated by one large ocean.  

Panama Tarpon Conservation (PTC) proposes a study and conservation project of the mysterious understudied migration behavior of the Atlantic Tarpon that made its way into the Panama Canal, shortly after its opening in 1914 and was first sighted in 1918 in the Gatun Lake. This observation has been the backroom talk of many ethnologists and ichthyologists of the fascinating tarpon transit through the Canal to the Pacific Ocean. Angler reports that date back to the 1930s confirmed sightings in the immediate islands south of the Panama Canal, Las Perlas Islands, and Bay of Panama.

Panama is the only country in the world where one can literally fish in two oceans and a lake in one day.  Panama Tarpon Conservation would like to study the tarpon’s ocean to ocean transit, focusing on the unique phenomenon that tarpon has made very little, if any, evolutionary change since prehistoric times. 

Panama Tarpon Conservation’s, (PTC) mission is to implement a tagging method utilizing local sport fishermen to research the unique transit habits of the tarpon between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Panama Canal.

PTC’s vision is to create a live database in conjunction with the scientific community for a better understanding of migratory and lifecycle patterns of Tarpon, while also researching how its’ feeding and mating habits impact the environment.