The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 7: June 1996
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Tag and release data circulation in Europe
An international system has been set up within Europe for the
exchange of both release information and recaptured fish data. In
theory, all organisations and individuals contributing towards tagging
programmes should send details of the fish they have tagged (e.g.
release date and position, species, length, sex, condition and liveliness
when released) to their national coordinating body (usually a marine
laboratory). For England and Wales, the Fisheries Research Laboratory,
Lowestoft, of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, not only
keeps the national release list, but also summarises and copies it to all
MAFF port offices around the UK and to similar establishments in
other European nations. Each national office then pays a reward for
the recapture of each tag returned within that country (plus market
value of the fish if the body is also surrendered), and ensures that the
recapture information is forwarded to its country of origin. This
reciprocal arrangement, whereby the cost is born by the country of
recapture rather than origin, minimises administrative costs and
balances out in the long run. However, each country's tags must be
identifiable for the system to work! The Fisheries Laboratory at
Lowestoft has quite a few untraceable tags which were recovered from
elasmobranchs tagged in unattributable tagging programmes!
Contact Martin Vince, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,
Directorate of Fisheries Research, Fisheries Laboratory, Pakefield
Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 0HT, UK, for more information on
tagging programmes in England and Wales.
It is obviously essential for all tagging programmes to be fully
integrated in a major national or international tagging scheme to
ensure that the return rate of recaptured tags is maximised. New
taggers should take note and make appropriate arrangements. At the
very least, it is essential that each country's tags have an identifying
national prefix code! Researchers setting up new tagging projects
should ensure that they obtain details of the appropriate national
tag prefix and use it.
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