TAG, YOU'RE IT!

Tagging deep sea fish

By John Luef

DEEP sea angling can give any angler many exciting and thrilling experiences, but there is little to beat the satisfaction of fighting a nice fish on light tackle, landing it, taking some photos and then tagging the fish and releasing it to fight another day. Hopefully it will get caught again sometime in the future, because these recaptures allow scientists to learn a lot about various aspects of the species.

In my opinion anglers generally go through a few phases when getting involved in deep sea angling. First the excitement grabs you and you want to get out there as much as possible and you keep nearly all the fish you catch, only releasing undersize and over quota fish. You also fish with heavy tackle so that you don’t lose any fish hooked.

Then, after a while, the initial novelty wears off; you have been involved with the sport longer and have caught some nice fish, and you are more aware of the environmental issues which are normally “preached” by clubs, associations and affiliations involved with the sport. You also start experimenting with lighter tackle. At this stage you start releasing more fish and keeping less.

Finally, when you have been involved with the sport for many years, you become a wiser fair weather fisherman. You discover that light tackle fishing is a lot more exciting and gives you much more pleasure when landing a nice fish, you learn to appreciate the privilege of catching nice fish and releasing them to fight another day, and you only keep one or two fish for the pan.At this stage you often look back at your angling experiences and wonder why you did not do this a long time ago.

I have been involved with deep sea angling and the tagging of fish in the Border area for many years now and have noticed a fair increase in many species in our area over the past few years. For example, we have recently experienced a mini “explosion” of dageraad. A few years ago this species was fairly rare, but now they can be caught in abundance at virtually any depth ranging from 10- to 100m. It’s also nice to see that there are numerous fish in and around the 40cm length. Scotsman, rockcod and even Englishman have also experienced nice recoveries, as these species are also being caught in far more abundance than they were a few years ago.

In my opinion, this can be mainly attributed to the implementation of the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in our area by Border Deep Sea Angling Association, which were eventually gazetted into law many years later. Many species resident in these MPAs have become overpopulated and are now moving out of these reserves through MPA spillover.

I also believe that an increase in anglers’ awareness of environmental issues and responsibility in that regard has made a difference, as has the cutting back of bag limits over the years. Should these trends of good catches continue, there is a healthy future for our sport in this area.

In the last three months, since our hard lockdown due to Covid-19, I have managed to tag close to 180 fish in our area! On one memorable trip with fellow Protea anglers,Allen Ford and Francois Beukes, we tagged 28 fish of nine different species in one day. These species were dageraad, Scotsman, Englishman, German bream, black musselcracker, yellowbelly rockcod, moustache rockcod, dane and soldier.

We also had three recaptures of tagged fish which was exciting. These fish — a moustache rockcod, a yellowbelly rockcod and a dageraad — were successfully re-released with their original tags. On another recent trip, fellow tagger Fred Clarke and I managed to tag and release 58 fish in a single outing.

Conventional tagging of marine fish in South Africa is managed by the Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI) which is a division of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR).They strive to stimulate community awareness of the marine environment through education, and promote wise, sustainable use of marine resources through scientific investigation.

The ORI-Cooperative Fish Tagging Project (ORI-CFTP) is a citizen science project that was initiated in 1984, with over 345 000 fish being tagged since then! It involves the cooperation of conservation-conscious recreational anglers who voluntarily tag and release the fish they catch, but it also relies on general anglers at large to report to ORI any recaptures of fish with tags in them. This has great scientific merit, allowing scientists to learn more about movement patterns, growth rates, mortality rates and population dynamics of important linefish species.

It’s important to note that when any angler catches a tagged fish, that fish still belongs to the angler and can be kept as long as it conforms to legal requirements, or it can be released. It assists scientists greatly if the following information is recorded and reported to ORI: the unique Tag Number (it has a A,B,D or M on it followed by 6 digits), the accurate length of the fish (normally fork length unless it has a rounded tail, then total length), the species of fish, the date of recapture, the exact locality, whether the fish was kept or released, and finally the angler’s name and contact details. Please handle the fish with care if you intend releasing it again.

ORI has a highly informative website <www.oritag.org.za>, which contains information about the project, useful responsible angling tips, and details of how to get involved.The website also contains links to videos you can watch to get more information on how to correctly handle, measure and tag a fish.

When tagging a fish, it must be handled with the utmost care so that it’s not injured or subject to undue stress. The fish must be gently placed on a measuring mat to get an accurate length, and it is advisable to cover the fish’s eyes with a damp towel as this tends to relax it.The tag is then inserted with a sharp, hollow, stainless-steel applicator needle. The tag is plastic and has a small barb on it to keep it in place once it’s inserted.

The tag is usually inserted in the dorsal musculature, above the lateral line of the fish, by first removing a scale and then inserting the tag in-between the dorsal spines at a 45° angle. This is to ensure the tag does not interfere with the fish’s movements.This process must be carried out as quickly as possible to get the fish back into the water in the shortest time possible. If necessary, hold the fish gently in the water to revive it and then release it. ORI provides detailed instructions to all taggers when they join the project.

We all love the sport of deep sea angling and want this privilege to continue for many generations to come, so we all need to become more aware of environmental issues and protect our oceans.Tagging fish is very satisfying for me because I know that in one small way I am contributing to the future of our sport.

Anyone who wants more information or who would like to become involved with the tagging project can contact the ORI Tagging Officer on +27 79 529 0711 or email <oritag@ori.org.za>.