Cooperative Tagging Center (CTC)

The Cooperative Tagging Center (CTC) began as the Cooperative Game Fish Tagging Program (GTP) at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) in 1954. The GTP was started by Dr. Frank J. Mather III with an initial focus on bluefin tuna. The program quickly expanded to include billfish in 1973 and became a joint effort between the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and WHOI. In 1980 the Miami Laboratory of the NMFSs Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) took complete responsibility for the operation, funding, and maintenance of the GTP (CTC History). In 1992 the SEFSC changed the program name to the CTC due to an increase in tagging efforts for a wider variety of species, as well as an increase in tagging research needs and requests for tagging data. Constituents have tagged over 270,000 fish of nearly 80 different species, however, today the CTC focuses solely on the tagging of billfish and tuna in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea.

The purpose of the data set is to examine movement patterns of highly migratorty fish species. The data set is also useful for estimating mortality rates and determining species longevity. The dataset is provided to The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas on a yearly basis and is used for species stock assessments.

The majority of data is on highly migratory species such as billfish and tuna, however there is data on nearly 80 species