Waddell bachelors looking for love: Bluffton mariculture center seeks perfect match

It’s been a while since I have given y’all the lowdown on what all is going on at the Waddell Mariculture Center in Bluffton, so what better time to do it than right around Valentine’s Day.

Alright, that may have sounded a tad weird since you are no doubt wondering what in the heck does Valentine’s Day have to do with Waddell. Here’s a hint: girls!

Girls? My take on V Day is it is directed more toward gals than guys. Red roses, chocolates, a romantic candlelit dinner … the whole ball of wax.

The problem with a certain fish species at Waddell is there isn’t a single female that three eligible bachelors there can court.

With this said, it sure hasn’t been for a lack of trying.

The fish is our local legend, the famous Port Royal cobia. Just last year, between the biologists and myself fishing day after day, we caught dozens of cobia looking for that one female, but every single cobia we caught was a male. Not one girl in the bunch.

Before the cobia fishery in Port Royal Sound collapsed, it wasn’t unusual to catch four or five big females in a single trip. Usually much larger than males, I can think of only two occasions last year when I suspected I had a large female on the line, but in both instances, the hook pulled before I could get her in the large transport tank we carry in the boat.

This year, a new plan is being hatched that might up our chances of capturing much-needed girls.

If you haven’t kept up with renovations at the Waddell Mariculture Center off Sawmill Creek Road, the wet lab where all the fish are housed, is spectacular.

Seriously under-funded by the state, it took years to finally get the money necessary to revamp the entire facility. But even with that, the dedicated professionals there are still finding themselves operating on a shoestring budget. If it weren’t for the local community’s support and the nonprofit Waddell Fund, I am not sure what might happen to this vital part of our community.

Research, education and restocking of fish such as cobia, redfish and trout make this place a jewel for our Lowcountry water-oriented lifestyle.

But getting back to cobia, there is a hitch.

The girls that are needed have to be from the genetically pure group that we call Port Royal cobia. Using DNA testing, the Waddell biologists can determine if that cobia comes from this very specific group.

Though thousands of Waddell-raised cobia have been released back into Port Royal Sound, females from that group just won’t do. In a nutshell, it would be inbreeding, which could lead to all sorts of negative issues. Sloped heads, three eyes, buck teeth … you know, stuff like that.

On the serious side, I suggested to the biologists there to possibly create a calendar showing days they will be out there trying to capture true Port Royal females. Once they get that schedule together, along with a cell number to call, give it to all the charter captains and any other recreational fishermen who want to help.

Should this program become a reality, a capture boat will be out there and all it takes is one call and they will come running to pick up the fish and transport it to the eager bachelor males waiting at the wet lab.

One true female can produce millions of eggs, and with Waddell’s new breeding tanks that mimic perfect light conditions and water temperature, year-round spawning can begin in earnest. Cool, huh?

As most local cobia anglers know, Port Royal Sound is closed to harvesting cobia during the month of May, the peak breeding season for those cobia. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fish for them, especially when you know that capturing these females (with the correct permits) may bring our famous Port Royal Sound cobia stocks back to healthy levels like they were before being decimated by over-fishing.

Maybe by next year’s Valentine’s Day love will be in the air, or in this case the water, at the Waddell Mariculture Center.

This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 3:41 PM.