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Feature Articles
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Yellowtail, yellowtail, where have you been?
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This article is reprinted with permission of Commercial Fisheries News, the Northeast's fishing newspaper for over 30 years, ©2003 Compass Publications Inc. Commercial Fisheries News is published monthly; annual subscriptions are $21.95. To subscribe or request a sample issue: call (877) 263-4496; fax (207) 367-2490; e-mail (cfoster@fish-news.com); or click on the hot link.
WOODS HOLE, MA - Save those tags! The
yellowtail flounder nearest you might be sporting one, and researchers
need the funky looking marking devices back.
The pink circular Peterson disk tags and
the even more valuable computer-chip-looking archival data storage
tags are expected to provide sorely needed information about yellowtail
growth rates, migration patterns, and, most importantly, stock-by-stock
mixing rates.
Nearly 900 yellowtail were tagged off
New Hampshire late in June from the Ellen Diane, which is owned
by local fisherman David Goethel. But that was just the first
"wave" of tagging effort.
With the help of many other commercial
fishermen, roughly 30,000 of these flatfish should be tagged before
the fall is out, covering all three of the species' major stock
ranges - the Gulf of Maine/Cape Cod area (with tagging concentrated
off Cape Cod), Georges Bank, and the Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic
area. Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans also has tagged
yellowtail on Georges Bank and is a cooperating partner in the
project.
"We hope this work will tell us more about
where fish go and how much they move. With enough returns, we
may also be able to document whether mortality and growth rates
vary in each area," said study manager Steve Cadrin of the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northeast Fisheries Science Center.
The answers to questions about yellowtail
mixing rates and area-by-area biological variations are especially
critical to fishermen who work on Cape Cod yellowtail. This stock,
although recently combined with Gulf of Maine yellowtail, is slated
for a very large - and deeply contested - reduction in fishing
mortality under Amendment 13 to the groundfish plan.
The pink circular Peterson disk
tag, above and at left. Nearly 900 yellowtail were tagged off
New Hampshire late in June aboard David Goethel’s dragger
Ellen Diane. Ultimately about 30,000 yellowtail will be tagged
with the help of many commercial fishermen from several different
stock areas. (NEFSC photos)
Cash rewards
As an added incentive for fishermen to return
the tags, organizers of this extensive collaborative research project
are offering cash rewards through a couple of different avenues.
First, anyone who hauls up an archival data storage tag automatically
gets an "instant" $100 reward when the tag is returned with the
requested information and a few scales from near the tail of the
fish.
Only 300 of these tags are being used in the study. They're
expensive to buy but well worth the money since they provide a continuous
record of the tagged fish's location and depth.
Fishermen will also
receive "instant" $100 rewards for selected pink disk tags. However,
everyone who returns a pink tag, even if not an instant winner,
will have their names entered in a lottery for a $1,000 cash reward,
which will be drawn separately for each stock region.
Among the
30,000 pink tags, study organizers said there will be "many" instant
winners.
Who's involved
NMFS scientists, along with other collaborators
and supporters, plan to tag 20,000 yellowtail flounder in the Gulf
of Maine off Cape Cod and on Georges Banks with commercial fishermen
aboard commercial vessels.
These trips will depart from Chatham,
Provincetown, and New Bedford, MA, plus Westport, ME thanks to funding
from NMFS's Fisheries Stock Assessment Improvement Program and other
in-house sources. Organizers have submitted a funding proposal to
the Northeast Consortium to continue the work through next year
as well.
Another 10,000 yellowtail will be tagged in Southern New
England and the Mid-Atlantic area through work being led by the
University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology
(SMAST) and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF).
Funding for this part of the project came from NMFS's Cooperative
Research Partners Initiative, which receives advice from the New
England Fishery Management Council's Research Steering Committee.
Both groups of researchers and fishermen are using the same tags
and the same tag-return reward system, with the Northeast Fisheries
Science Center serving as the call-in headquarters (see story below
for contact info).
"We're the data keepers," confirmed NMFS spokesperson
Teri Frady.
To track the project on the Internet, log on to http://www.cooperative-tagging.org.
Find a tag? Save it and call (877) 826-2612
If you haul up a yellowtail flounder
with a pink disk tag or an archival data storage tag, study organizers
say: "Remove the entire tag from the fish." Next, be sure to record:
- Date;
- Exact location the fish was caught by longitude and latitude
if at all possible or, at the very least, by statistical area;
- Length of the fish; and
- Condition of the fish, especially around the tag site.
Once in port
After returning to port, call toll free 1-877-826-2612 and report the find.
Even if no one's available to come to the phone, a voice recorder
will take your message and give prompts for information. If you're
lucky enough to come across an archival data storage tag, keep
all the information listed above, call in, and then mail the whole
tag - and a few scales from the fish - to the National Marine
Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Science Center at: 166 Water
St., Woods Hole, MA 02543. Anyone finding a pink "instant winner"
disk tag also will need to take a few scales from the fish near
the tail and mail those in with the tag. Tagging results will
be posted on the web at http://www.cooperative-tagging.org.
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