PROFILE:
Kathy Guindon: Tracking Tarpon

By Buzz Kelly

If you love tarpon, meet your new best friend: She’s Kathy Guindon (pronounced “GIN-dun” with a hard “G”) and she’s a field research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Growing up in Lebanon, Pennsylvania (that’s in America, not the middle east), Guindon came from an outdoors-loving family. They camped out weekends, her brothers and father hunting while she fished and explored creeks and rivers, turning over rocks to catch crayfish, salamanders and newts. Often she found discarded tackle, eventually gathering enough of it to make her own fishing gear. Using her jerry-rigged “garbage,” she caught enough “sunnies” (bluegills, Lepomis macrochirus, a popular and delicious freshwater pan-fish) to put grown bass-fishermen to shame.

Noticing her natural interest, her grandfather set about teaching everything he knew of fishing. Her first store-bought rod and reel and tackle box were a gift from him. He taught her how to cast a spinning reel, feel the bite, set the hook. She eagerly adopted those skills, and by the time she reached high school, Guindon knew she wanted to work with fish.

She already knew fish were important for the world in terms of food, both as sources of protein and livelihoods for aquaculture and artisanal fisheries. She found saltwater fish and ecosystems far more diverse and exciting than freshwater. Having other science interests as well as a yen for music, she opted for a liberal arts college where she could pursue studies in both -- music for fun and a general biology degree to get a broad science background.

By 1991, she had earned her bachelor of science in biology at Lebanon Valley College, a small private school, and spent the summer between college and grad school working on an oyster aquaculture project at Rutgers Shellfish Research Laboratory in Port Norris, NJ. She loved the flats, but decided fish were more interesting than mud-dwellers.

Then she won a Sea Grant Fellowship to attend North Carolina State University where she earned her MS. The day she passed her finals, she got a call for a job interview at the FWC – and a few weeks later was offered a job. She’s been with FWC for 13 years, working in the field, researching everything from flounder to snook to pompano, and – most recently – tarpon.

Today, her research on tarpon is helping her earn a PhD from the University of South Florida with grant support from Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited.

Guindon has been a member of the American Fisheries Society since 1992, including a stint as president in 2002 – and is also active in the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and with the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation.

Currently, she’s principal investigator on a project called “the physiological effects of body-size and catch-and-release angling in tarpon.” The project is funded by Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited and the Fisheries Conservation Foundation’s Flats Fishing Alliance. She’s also working on an investigation of tarpon behavior and life history, funded by the Federal Aid in Sportfish Restoration Act. And if that and her field research didn’t keep her busy enough, she also serves on the FWC Science Conference Steering Committee.

Now, before you start thinking Guindon is a fish-hugger, she’s not. She loves fishing, not just for sport but also for food. Her concern, and the focus of her research, is primarily what happens to tarpon once caught and released. Is there a better way to hook and fight them than is commonly used? Do we need education programs to teach both anglers and guides how to ensure that tarpon survive after release? What are the long-term effects on caught tarpon after release? What is happening with the tarpon population, and what’s the prognosis for the future?

If you see her out on the water, hauling in a silver king for a blood-test or DNA sample, say hello. She’s our friend, and the tarpon’s friend, too. Oh, and if you attend the Tampa Bay Symphony concerts, you may notice her playing concert violin. Wrestling tarpon by day, playing violin by night – Guindon is truly a woman of many talents.