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Guy Havey

On a recent dive at one of my favorite dive locations in Grand Cayman, Tarpon Alley on the north wall, I was lining up some shots of the tarpon aggregations when I spotted two permits swimming amongst the school of tarpon. Typically the permit is a very shy fish and difficult to approach underwater. However these two were pretending to be tarpon and hoped I would not notice them. Sorry guys… Busted! I moved in for a closer shot and snapped a couple of frames. I was delighted to have got so close before they shuffled their position and moved out of the tarpon and away from me.
 
Tarpon Alley is one of the few dive sites I can be sure to find the permits hanging out, but they are usually swimming high off the bottom and going somewhere fast. It is also a good spot to find cubera snappers, horse-eye jacks, Caribbean reef sharks and great hammerheads. All of these fish are reef predators and they hang out near the Stingray City channel as this is where all the water goes out of North Sound on the outgoing tide, bringing the small fish and invertebrates on which they feed in the current.
 
The Atlantic permit is a member of the jack family of fishes, averaging 20 to 30 pounds, but it grows to 50 pounds and is fairly common on both sides of the Atlantic. However nowhere is it abundant. Its characteristic rhomboid shape, a blunt face with flattened silvery sides, long pointed dorsal and anal fins and deeply forked tail will quickly identify this large fish from other members of the family. A diver might encounter a permit on the deep fore-reef, by a wreck, or in deep channels between the reef, whereas the snorkeler may catch a glimpse of a permit in the shallow back reef as it cruises the flats looking for morsels in the sand and turtle grass.
 
The permit is an important fish for recreational anglers and is found in the same areas as bonefish, sometimes in mixed schools. They tend to come up on to flats on a flooding tide much like the bonefish. The difference is they tend to wait a bit longer than bonefish as they are much deeper bodied and twice their size, so they need more water to get over the flats.
 
They rarely make “mud” like the bonefish. Occasionally you will see a little puff of sand as an individual fish roots in the bottom, but a school will never cloud the water by their feeding.
 
Swimmers and snorkelers in the shallow, clear waters off Seven Mile Beach may encounter a jack that looks like a miniature permit swimming around their legs as they wade. These are a smaller species called a palometa. From the aesthetic point of view they are great fish to paint, set in the shallow water environment, with the bright sunlight dappling their back, their stern look with big eyes, their long fins, dark blotch on the flank and the yellow/orange tinge on their belly. I often include other species in the scene, such as bonefish, stingrays or a lurking barracuda.
 
While anglers target tarpon and bonefish in all three of the Cayman Islands, few permit are caught here purposely. Anglers in the Bahamas, Florida and Central America fish actively for permit, on conventional tackle using bait in shallow water or over deep wrecks, with fly tackle and many will try for the ultimate inshore fishing achievement, catching a “flats slam” comprising a tarpon, bonefish and permit in the same day.
 
The permit feeds on crustaceans, molluscs and other invertebrates buried in the substrate and has a mouth with the texture of a car tire, as well as a pharyngeal mill that crushes the shells of these animals. During the contest, in which the permit’s runs last longer than any bonefish, it may rub its face or bang its head on the substrate trying to dislodge the hook. It will run immediately for deep water and try and cut the line off on coral, sponges, gorgonians and any vertical snag. They are smart fish and tough to catch.
 
In Jamaica, they are given the name “Cockle Digger Jack” for good reason and can be seen in the shallow muddy waters of river mouths, foraging for clams and cockles with tail up in the air alongside eagle rays and sting rays. The permit is consumed in many Caribbean islands as their flesh is white and succulent after cooking.
 
Because of its importance as a game fish, the permit is just now receiving attention from research scientists, eager to learn more about their life history and growth rates. On a diving expedition to Belize on the full moon in April one year, while searching for grouper and snapper aggregations, I encountered a large school of permit also in a spawning aggregation, well off the bottom in 30 fathoms of water. The spawning process was very brief, lasting only seconds and the entire school of several hundred fish swam off out of sight leaving a cloud of gametes to do their thing and drift with the currents.
 
Spawning takes place for several months over the full moon period in the spring and summer each year. The current carries the fertilized eggs up the Caribbean coast of Central America where they hatch into larvae and settle as juveniles, finding refuge in mangrove environments along the coasts and barrier reef islands. Although they face a multitude of predators as juveniles,  adult permit have few predators, because of their great swimming speed and strength. Reef sharks, bull sharks, and great hammerheads are equipped to take out a permit and probably large barracuda may prey upon the permit. Having no directed commercial fishery for the permit, this species is not currently overexploited, however a commercial fishery exists for the pompano, a similar looking but smaller species found in the southern US.
 
Next time you are suspended at 60 feet along the north wall and a couple of flying silver rhomboids swim by propelled by forked tails and you wonder what they are, you will know the answer.
 
Dive safely, fish responsibly.
Guy Harvey PhD.
guyharveyart.com    WH