Tag & Release, with the sportfishing boat the "PROWLER" and Capt. Al Anderson

Sport fishing aboard the... With Capt. Al Anderson

RECENT TAGGING ACTIVITIES aboard the PROWLER
Year	#'s T/R	Career
2003	3,033	31,023
2004	5,157	36,180
2005	4,269	40,449
2006	5,668	46,097

AGENCY	2007 SEASON	CAREER
ALS	3,061 striped bass	37,128
	501 bluefish	4,992
	411 codfish	1,734
	6 haddock	71
NMFS	7 blue, mako sharks	1,363
NMFS	88 bluefin tuna	4,687
TOTALS:	4,081	50,166
Fishing community reported the recap of 159 PROWLER tagged fish in ’07; 135 stripers, 8 codfish, 12 bluefish, & 4 bluefin tuna. PROWLER clients recap’d. 8 ALS, 2 USFWS, & 1 HRF tagged striped bass.

SOME TAGGING MILESTONES:

50,000th GAME FISH TAGGED/RELEASED

     Hard to believe it was just 40 years ago (1968) I tagged and released my first school bluefin tuna for Frank Mather, III, who was then studying these fish at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. That same year I marked my first striped bass for the American Littoral Society, thanks to the urging of Bob Pond, founder of Stripers Unlimited.
     Thanks to my wife’s urging, 13 years later following construction of a new vessel, I begin recording my activity, as prior to that I had no record of how many fish I’d marked. Before that, dozens of striped bass, bluefin tuna, white marlin and various sharks annually carried away either ALS, WHOI, or NMFS Apex Predator tags.
     Over a decade ago I authored GAMEFISH TAG & RELEASE for The FISHERMAN Library, profiling 34 various Federal, State and private tagging programs. Today that number has exploded to over 200 Atlantic and Gulf Coast Programs, primarily the result of fisheries managers requiring better information about heavily fished resources.
      A school bluefin tuna my daughter caught that was T/R became the first recorded trans-Atlantic recapture (Bay of Biscay). Few taggers are fortunate enough to learn their fish carry out trans-equatorial as well as trans-Atlantic movements, or travel 1600 miles in less than 10 days, or are recaptured and retagged 3 times during their life history
     On December 12, 2007, a Thames River 23”, 5 lb. over-wintering striped bass, caught by Stephanie Cramer, carried away American Littoral Society tag (ALS# 745627), marking the 50,000th (*) game fish tagged in my charter sportfishing career. It goes without saying this milestone could not have been achieved were it not for the help and support of all my conservation minded clients and friends. Without their aid such an accomplishment would have been impossible.

(*)   37,000 striped bass
       5,200 bluefin & yellowfin tuna
       4,800 bluefish
       1,500 sharks
       1,500 cod and haddock

PROWLER anglers tagged 4,081 game fish in ’07 while recapturing 11 fish bearing tags; get this – three were T/R from the PROWLER up to a year prior.

In ‘07 159 PROWLER tagged fish were reported recaptured. These included cod, bluefish, striped bass, and Atlantic bluefin tuna (giants) from VA to ME, as well as Eastern Atlantic waters including the Mediterranean.