SMAST and the Northeast Regional Cod Tagging Program 2003
Introduction • Summary • By the Numbers • Tagging Protocol • Fishermen Partners • Outreach • End Note • Final Report 2005

The first year of the Northeast Regional Cod Tagging Program has been highly successful, both from the multi-region, multi-agency perspective, and from the perspective of the SMAST activities on Georges Bank.We successfully tagged over 7,900 Atlantic cod from a widespread area over Georges Bank. Tagging was conducted in both spring and the fall, with a heavy emphasis on the spring as planned by the cooperating institutions.

Although the early return rate is considered low at only 2.5%, we expect the rate to increase with time. However, the striking pattern of high returns in Canadian waters suggests that earlier studies may have underestimated the magnitude of seasonal movements of cod between US and Canadian waters. To better understand this trend, the Northeast Regional Cod Tagging Program is planning to implement an extensive high-reward tag component to the study in 2004 in order to obtain data on report rates among the various tagging areas. This will be especially important for evaluating the movement patterns of Georges Bank fishes, because of concerns that US fishermen may be reporting at a substantially lower rate than Canadian fishermen. The Canadian DFO and SMAST are planning to conduct a small tag exchange program to further evaluate reporting rate issues between the two regions