Cooperative Tagging Center Newsletter: An Update Since Covid (2020-2023)
April 11, 2025
The Cooperative Tagging Center, a cooperative citizen science program, provides volunteer anglers and fishers with tagging kits for billfish (sailfish and marlin) and tuna species as well as some small coastal pelagic species. This is an update since 2020.
The Cooperative Tagging Center relies on information collected by volunteers—charter captains, anglers, and commercial fishermen—who are frequently out on the water. Volunteers not only tag and release billfish (sailfish and marlin), tuna, and swordfish, but also report when they have recaptured one. By recording interactions with tagged fish, scientists are learning more about when and where the fish migrate and the range of their habitat. They also learn seasonal patterns, shifts in behavioral changes, and other aspects of their ecology, as well as post-release survival. All of this information leads to a more sustainably managed fishery.