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The SMAST Cod Tagging Project Project Manager: David Martins
The Cod Tagging Project at SMAST was developed through the Massachusetts
Fisheries Recovery Commission (MFRC) and funded through the NOAA Fisheries
Northeast
Region Cooperative Research Partners Initiative (CRPI).
The project
was developed to provide a liaison with the fishing fleet
and create an industry based program that will provide data on the
abundance, distribution, and behavior of commercially fished species
and the environment in which they are found. The program utilizes
the knowledge and expertise of the local fishing industry to collect
and tag cod under normal fishing operations in the Gulf of Maine,
Georges Bank, and Nantucket Shoals.
Vessels with homeports ranging from Monhegan Island, Maine to Montauk, New York have provided assistance with fish collection and tagging. SMAST personnel also accompany chartered vessels on trips solely dedicated to research activities. As fish are collected and tagged, the location and time of capture are recorded, along with the fish’s length. A small yellow T-bar tag (3” in length) is inserted into the musculature at the base of the fish’s first dorsal fin and the fish are released. The T-Bar tags have a yellow collar on which a unique identification number is printed for fish determination, along with the SMAST name and phone number for reporting recaptured tags. Archival tags are also attached in a similar location on a subset of fish to record environmental parameters such as temperature, depth, and salinity. Each tag contains a unique sequence of numbers that identify the fish and is used to link the tagging data with similar information collected once the fish is recaptured. |
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SMAST Fisheries |