Game Fish Tagging News

There have been 40 tag recaptures reported since the beginning of this gamefish season on the 1^st of July. Two marlin, one blue and one striped marlin, were recaptured south of Fiji. Two tagged blue sharks were reported from the South Island, 21 yellowtail kingfish were recaptured around the North Island and mako recaptures spread from the Hokitika Trench to the tropics.

This year, yellowfin tuna are one of the recommended species in the tagging programme for the first time and a recapture has already been reported from north of East Cape.

The Programme

This gamefish tagging programme is a cooperative project between the Ministry of Fisheries, the New Zealand Big Game Fishing Council, its affiliated clubs and anglers, commercial fishers and the current fisheries research provider. In October last year Blue Water Marine Research Ltd took over the management of the programme from NIWA.

One of the first tasks for the new contractor was to write a tagging policy which reviewed which the species tagged and why. The report was developed with input from the Ministry of Fisheries and members of their Pelagic Working Group.

Marlin Recaptures

In mid September a blue marlin tagged in New Zealand waters was caught south of Fiji. It was originally tagged in mid April on the King Bank from Reel Obsession, a Tutukaka gamefish charter boat. This fish had been at liberty for 158 days (5 months) and travelled 800 nautical miles. This is the first time a blue marlin tagged in New Zealand waters had been recaptured. It took Shane Matheson just 15 minutes to catch and was estimated to be 200 kg on release. No length or weight was reported on recapture as it had been “munched by shark”.

A striped marlin caught on the 23^rd of June, was also taken by a tuna longline vessel south of Fiji. It travelled 960 nautical miles in just 67 days after also being tagged in mid April on the King Bank. The angler was Guy Jacobson and the fish was estimated to be 65 kg.

Sharks on the Move

Five of the 13 Mako recaptures reported this season came from Fiji and one from Queensland. A small mako tagged near Whangarei was recaptured over four years later 80 miles off Ninety Mile Beach but unfortunately no estimate of the size was made. Dave Carr tagged a 100 kg mako in 1999 off Otago Heads, which turned up in a trawl net in August 2000 on the Hokitika Trench.

The first thresher shark recapture was reported this season. It was caught by a Japanese tuna longliner just north of our EEZ in September. The tag looked as though it hadn’t been in long but as yet no tag card has been handed in. If you tag fish please hand in the completed tag card to your club promptly, or post to the return address on the back of the card. Particularly if anyone has tagged a thresher shark check that you card has be sent in.

Yellowfin are in

A trial is under way to test angler acceptance of yellowfin tagging during the 2000/01 season. We recommended that only fish over 10 kg are tagged but would like to see the whole size range of yellowfin tagged down to that size. The tag should be placed tag high on the back about half way along and angled back at 45^oso that it will stream with the flow of water when swimming (see diagram).

It was encouraging to get a yellowfin recapture in early February from a fishing vessel 16 nautical miles north of Lottin Point. This fish had been tagged in December off Whale Island, by Tony Stollery. He estimated that it was 18 kg and took 20 minutes to catch. This yellowfin was recaptured about 70 nautical miles from its release site after 40 days at liberty.