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A New Mobile Device Application Enhances Fisherman Reporting of Alaska Groundfish Tag Recovery

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Groundfish Tag Program of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) has released over 430,000 tagged groundfish in Alaska and West Coast waters since 1972. Tag reporting by industry is the primary means of data recovery and to date, nearly 40,000 tags have been returned by the fishing industry. It is one of the longest active tagging programs in the nation and is an example of successful cooperative research between researchers and industry, and citizen science to recover this valuable data. These tagging data are incredibly valuable and have been used to examine movement patterns, evaluate areal apportionment strategies of annual catch quota, validate ageing methods, examine growth, and have resulted in numerous scientific and management publications.

Project URL: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/map/alaska-groundfish-tagging-map

Geographic Scope: Tag recoveries by fishermen occur and are reported from all federal fishery locations in Alaska, as well as internationally (Japan, Russia, Canada and Mexico).

Project Status: Active - recruiting volunteers

Participation Tasks: Geolocation, Identification, Measurement, Observation,

Start Date: 01/01/1972

Project Contact: katy.echave@noaa.gov

Federal Government Sponsor:

NOAA logo

Other Federal Government Sponsor: National Marine Fisheries Service

Fields of Science: Animals, Ocean/water and marine

Intended Outcomes: We are improving and streamlining the process for industry to report data by developing a tag recovery reporting application (app) for mobile devices. A mobile app would simplify the process for fishermen when returning recovered tags and presumably could improve reporting rates and provide more tag data.