A. G. WOODWARD AND NICK NICHOLSON, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, One Conservation Way, Brunswick, Georgia 31523, USA

Relocations of adult red drum marked with external tags or telemetered with ultrasonic transmitters were used to describe seasonal movements and habitat preferences within the central South Atlantic Bight. From 1989-1995, a total of 1,090 fish (702-1,080 mm) collected with hook and entanglement gear from Georgia's nearshore waters were marked with plastic dart tags and released at the capture site. Ultrasonic transmitters were internally implanted in 75 red drum. Six tagged red drum were recovered within 10 km of the release site after periods at large ranging from 190 to 1,091 days. One fish was recaptured after 86 days near Titusville, Florida, a distance of 168 miles south. A total of 50 telemetered red drum were relocated at least once. Adult red drum exhibit a pattern of seasonal movement spending the winter months offshore, moving to nearshore waters in the spring, entering the estuaries during the late summer, then moving back into the nearshore waters during the fall. Critical habitats include deeper reaches of tidal rivers, coastal inlets, and shoal/sandbar complexes. These findings indicate that some portion of the spawning biomass exhibits fidelity to specific areas supporting the idea that functional subgroups exist within the Atlantic Coast population.