27,000 tagged snapper

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) is conducting research on the West Coast to determine how strong snapper stocks are. The research is being conducted to determine if “rebuild measures” that were implemented after the last count 10 years have worked.

The tags have been inserted into the guts of 27,000 snapper. The tags are around 10mm long and 3mm wide and NIWA promise the wound heals quickly and the device causes no harm if digested by people or pets.

The snapper were caught in successive trawls taking around 200 at a time. The fish were then held in tanks and were later tagged and released