Should we ALL be tagging??

[Scalem]

For a number of reasons, I have been thinking more closely about fish tagging and our plight as amateur fishermen to assist in providing relevant data to fisheries. The fishing fraternity are becoming more and more involved in environmental discussions at all levels, but the question remains - if we are becoming more and more environmentally friendly, and we beleive that releasing a fish after capture is "doing the right thing," we need to know how many of those fish survive their encounter with you, and how do they progress in their lives from then on? I know there would already be data available, but the invitation is for those AF members in the know to post URL's here for everyone's benefit.

Fishermen are advocating the pending green zones in Moreton Bay are not going to make significant changes to fish populations or improved conditions when there are numerous other issues such as polution affecting our bay.

How acceptable would it be to issue a tagging kit with every boat registration or licensing where every registered boat owner compulsarily attends a training session on tag and release methods and collection of data? We would then have a huge amount of statistical information that I dare say would strengthen our arguement that recreational fishing really does not have as profound an influence on fish stocks as our green friends might suggest, and our current level of fishing activity is sustainable.

Your thoughts?

Scalem

[baitwaster]

I'd be all too happy to use a tagging kit - issued with rego would be the go, or have them readily available at tackle shops. I have only ever caught 1 fish with a tag in it and I recorded and sent the info. Can info on tagged fish caught be entered online? - that would be easy to do once pics were posted on ausfish forum first

[FNQCairns]

Think everyone when they become a little serious over their fishing ponders the idea, I know I have in the past.

Today with our fisheries management based more on green and caffe latte ideology than common sense backed with science, the idea of tagging becomes yet another waste (or worse) of a citizens time, still when 'deemed' the data can skewed and used against recreational fisherman - it's not as if their is any justification needed in law to take away the few basic allowances we have left, all that is needed is the will to deny on ideaology only (dpi has lots of it) and yet another layer of doing no harm basic freedom is simply gone.

There are hundreds (nay thousands) of public purse employee's in this arena Aust wide, a good number are funded from the side but still public money, these individuals loose all future justification to remain employed if they do not recommend taking away more and more at each round, to not recommend further public sanctions is not a consideration worthy and is to be ostracised from withing the fold, it's a hard system to find even a sliver of a crack of moral or individual decency in.

cheers fnq

[eotbmg]

Interesting topic Brian,
Funnily enough i have only just emailed ANSA for all the guff on tagging and costs of becoming a member. I am keen to tag the barra from monduran and awoonga and thought that my small contribution would be helpful to the restoking program. I know Navi [black_sheep] has been tagging fish for years and has had several fish recaptured.
Cheers
Ben

[Jeremy]

at present, you need to be a member of an ANSA club to become involved in the tagging program. see www.ansaqld.com.au

The tag guns for the little dart tags cost around $45 and tags are free. I believe there is a shortage of tags Statewide due to limited Gov't funding, so you have to beg the club tagging officer to get a supply.

At present the tagging system is run by 'Infofish' which is linked to 'Recfish'. The currennt system requires ALOT of data on each tagging trip, which has dampened my enthusiasm for tagging recently.

Jeremy

[grahams]

There are some interesting parallels between Central Queensland and Moreton Bay. The 2004 rezoning triggered a lot of interest in monitoring fish abundance, effort etc. Primarily so the local community could be better informed on management decisions in the future.

This work involves, trip reports, tagging, working with researchers, fishing clubs and other sources of data we can find. To date this has been highly successful with over 3500 trips logged in and a database of individual fish pushing up towards 100,000.
Even knowing the fundamentals has helped, for instance we know there are about 20000 offshore trips per year from yeppoon and the total annual recreational take of reef fish is in the order of 70000kg. This is similar to higher than the commercial catch.

To have a look at some of these findings, go to info-fish.net

Our database is now used by many of the researchers and we are building very good working relations with fisheries managers. So any future contentious changes can be tested against of a lot of fair dinkum data that the fishing community believes...because its their data.

[PinHead]

For a number of reasons, I have been thinking more closely about fish tagging and our plight as amateur fishermen to assist in providing relevant data to fisheries. The fishing fraternity are becoming more and more involved in environmental discussions at all levels, but the question remains - if we are becoming more and more environmentally friendly, and we beleive that releasing a fish after capture is "doing the right thing," we need to know how many of those fish survive their encounter with you, and how do they progress in their lives from then on? I know there would already be data available, but the invitation is for those AF members in the know to post URL's here for everyone's benefit.

Fishermen are advocating the pending green zones in Moreton Bay are not going to make significant changes to fish populations or improved conditions when there are numerous other issues such as polution affecting our bay.

How acceptable would it be to issue a tagging kit with every boat registration or licensing where every registered boat owner compulsarily attends a training session on tag and release methods and collection of data? We would then have a huge amount of statistical information that I dare say would strengthen our arguement that recreational fishing really does not have as profound an influence on fish stocks as our green friends might suggest, and our current level of fishing activity is sustainable.

Your thoughts?

Scalem

not acceptable at all brian..making things compulsory turns people away from it very quickly.

[the gecko]

Ive been thinking the same thing for a while too brian. I dont have time to join a recognised club tho.

Why cant we apply and have Ausfish recognised as a club? Who do we apply to? ANSA or Sunfish?

Yes pinhead is spot on too, compulsory would ruin it. How much bad information would arise.......but its a good idea for those who care enough about research.

Andrew

[PinHead]

I did catch a tagged bream..the winter before alst..I did not even know it was tagged when I caught it...did not notice till I got back home..rang the details through..they then send you a certificate type piece of paper stating where and when it was tagged and the size when tagged...this one had travelled from Hervey Bay( I think it was) to Pumicestone Passage and had grown 3cm in 3 months.

[Timfishin4fun]

Hi guys, I thought about this years ago and rang up about it. Two problems arose. 1. I could only tag certain species they wanted tagged. 2. I could only tag fish that were of a legal size. Why couldn't we tag the juviniles and see how and where and what can make sure growth rates are maintained. They turned me away straight away. Tim

[gone_phishin]

Things must have changed a bit Tim...tagging size has just been reduced again to 150mm, and there are 9 more species on the list than last year. It all gets back to funding as far as why there are only certain species tagged and minimum sizes...if we were to tag all fish there would be not enough tags around and they cost approximately $1 each, and the list does cover a lot of the more common species, including Hussar!!! As far as minimum size goes, the fish become much more viable after the 150mm mark as far as recaptures are concerned, as they are then higher up the food chain and have a better survival rate. Well over 500,000 fish have now been tagged in Qld waters and some of the recapture results are real eye openers! As the others have said have a look at the infofish website: http://www.info-fish.net/browsetopic...Suntag%20Works
and you'll find heaps of information on tagging. You can be a member of Queensland Sportfishers which is affiliated to ANSA Qld, so you don't actually have to join an ANSA Club to participate. Bill will give you all the info you need for this if you ring the 1800 number on the website.

There is a lot more information that you can supply on the recapture forms, but the emphasis is on the angler, capture location, date, size, fishing style, and release condition, with the extra info being optional.

Cheers
Geoff

[blaze]

Just to add
I run the tagging in tassie for a few years and it is not as simple as sticking a tagg in the fish. If the tag isnt put in right and in the right position its a waste of time. Then you need to get the correct info on the tagged fish, things like lenth, release condition, location caught ect. Now this might sound easy but there is often cases of fish captures of tagged fish that were never recorded as tagged. Tags are free to the tagger but they are expensive to buy. On the plus side it does build up a data base of fish that can be used in real science for the betterment of fisheries.
cheers
blaze
ps
so I thing not every body is a suitable tagger and there needs to be training for those that are

[Scalem]

Holy Dooley!

There's so much reading to do on the subject, and so much reporting to do, I can understand Jeremy's dampening enthusiasm. I will spend some time looking at the links you guys have provided.

But it appears the solution is never clear cut or simple. OK Greg/ Andrew, if you don't make it compulsory, how can we make things more simplified so that your average shmo can get involved? I would not be on my pat malone in thinking it is only a matter of time before queenslanders will also have to pay for a fishing license, so why can't we incorporate funding for tagging in this way? I admit I don't understand the lay of the land with ANSA and their relationship with Fisheries, and why as gone_phishin says "it is all a matter of funding" Isn't it always a sad fact of life that whenever a good initiative is possible, it is restricted by funding, or lack of appropriate allocation of funds.

But it's good to see the parallel with up north Grahams, ultimately we need a good outcome as you have stated with "Our database is now used by many of the researchers and we are building very good working relations with fisheries managers. So any future contentious changes can be tested against of a lot of fair dinkum data that the fishing community believes...because its their data.

Ben, can you let us know your progess and their responses?

Thanks

Scalem

[Luc]

Infofish Services (Bill Sawynok) administers the Qld tagging program (SUNTAG) on behalf of ANSA Qld. This link http://www.info-fish.net/ will give you all the information you need about the tagging program both Qld and other states.

Each year, Ansa Qld gets funding from the Qld govt via DPI&F. This covers administration costs and purchase of tags. As has been previously stated, there are only a limited number of tags available hence the restriction of tagging to those species listed on the tagging list.
Bill is more than happy to received donations towards the purchase of more tags.

To participate in SUNTAG, you have to be a member of ANSA Qld either through an affilliated club or as a direct member (Qld sportfisher).

The detailed info required from taggers allows Bill to accumulate very comprehensive information about fishing. (read some of the report available online from INFOFISH).

If you're not prepared to complete the tagging sheets properly, don't tag.

The only way we can argue our position is with hard and accurate information. Have a look at the CapReef link on the Infofish website.

This sort of monitoring program should be used across the whole of Qld to provide info (read ammo) for when dealing with government department and others who want to stick their noses into rec fishing.

Luc
ANSA Qld Exec
http://ansaqld.com.au/

[Poodroo]

I honestly think that tagging is a great idea. Just how many people would fall into the "I can't be bothered doing it" category would probably blow you away though. I think I would happily tag and release personally. Good thread Scalem.

Poodroo