Tag Return Striped Bass

[Billfish715]

Recently, I tagged a 32" striper with a Littoral Society yellow tag while fishing off Island Beach State Park. The fish already had a U.S. Fish and Wildlife pink anal tag in it. After phoning in the information I received a certificate and a pin from their program based in Maryland. The only information about the fish's initial capture was that it was tagged by the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Hudson River. It was tagged in the spring of 2014 in the Hudson River. How this information helps the Feds monitor the striped bass stock and their growth and migration is sketchy to say the least. What was the fish's size when first tagged? Was it caught past the Tappan Zee Bridge or near the Verazanno? Maybe if someone catches the fish again, my tag will shed more light.

[emcjim]

Bill,

Some time ago, I caught 21" bass w/ a pink belly tag. Phoned in the info, and had an interesting discussion w/ John, in Annapolis, MD, who identified himself as the tagging director. John claimed that belly tags allow the fish to swim more freely than behind-the-dorsal tags do. He was very firm that his data is more realistic than ALS data as a result of the "freely-swimming" fish. I received a cap and a certificate. As you did, I felt that the certificate lacked detailed info that should have been recorded and thus sent to the fisherman who caught the fish.

Then I sent an e-mail to Jeff at ALS about belly tags versus behind-the dorsal. Jeff replied that the ALS uses a team of volunteers who tag 10-to-100 times the fish that the paid-professional-belly taggers do. The volunteers are not trained in belly tagging, and therefore would probably kill too many fish in the process. Hence the use to behind-the-dorsal tags for the volunteers, with a lot more resulting, detailed data. Freely-swimming? I have a return from Cape Ann, MA that was tagged at IBSP. I re-captured an ALS-tagged fish off Sandy Hook that was tagged 68 days earlier near Portland, ME.

Jim

[Billfish715]

HI Jim,
You were the one who turned me onto the ALS tagging program when we surf fished a number of years ago in Mantoloking. Jeff has some interesting stories about fish tags that have been returned. One of those stories involves a tag that was returned from Kennebunkport by a fisherman named Bush.
My disappointment in the tag return information from the US Fish and Wildlife program is that there was really no information. I also spoke with John at his office in Maryland and he told me that I should have just read the number on the tag and left it in. I told him that it was so encrusted with slime etc. that I had to remove it. There is still a "chip/anchor" in the belly of the fish which they can still read if the fish is caught again. My yellow tag is still in the fish as well. He told me that if the tag were still in the fish when it was returned to the water, they could still get valuable information from it when it was recaptured.
I am almost certain from reading their literature that they are more interested in the survival rate of these fish. They must have some kind of algorithm to determine striper population numbers, otherwise, they would have included more information like that with which we provide the ALS.