Science - North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission




	General Information

	Science Sub-Committee

	Working Groups

	Science Plan 2011-2015

	BASIS

	Species

	Fish Tag Recovery

	Otolith Marking

	Statistics

	Status of Stocks

	Scientific Agencies

	Special Funding

	Research Vessels

	RPCG Meetings

	Sampling for DNA



	Contact Us

Pacific Salmon and Steelhead High-seas Tag Recovery Program

Program Overview
Rewards for Tag Recovery
About Tags
What to do if you catch a tagged fish
Addresses for Tag Returns
Results of Recent Tagging Experiments

Program Overview

High seas salmon tagging has been conducted from the 1950s to the present by placing disk tags on salmon and steelhead during research cruises in the North Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Alaska, and Bering Sea. These studies have been used to investigate ocean distribution, migration, and growth of salmon at sea. Reporting salmon and steelhead tag recoveries is important because it provides direct evidence of the distribution and ocean habitat of salmon, which can be affected by climatic changes, and helps to conserve salmon stocks in North Pacific ecosystems. Some disk-tagged fish also carry an electronic tag. Recoveries of undamaged electronic tags provide detailed information on the individual salmon's behaviour by recording the fish's swimming depth and other information about the fish's habitat. Disk tags and electronic tags are easy to see because they are placed outside the fish's body, near the dorsal fin. Please return high seas salmon and steelhead tags.

Rewards for Tag Recovery

Any member of the public (i.e., fishermen, processors, non fishery-agency personnel) who returns a NPAFC High Seas Tag will receive a custom-embroidered baseball cap with the high seas salmon tagging emblem. In addition, persons returning tags will be entered into a drawing for cash prizes.

There is a total of three prizes:

1st Prize	CDN$500
2nd Prize	CDN$300
3rd Prize	CDN$200
Total:	CDN$1,000

Salmon Tagging Rewards at 2011 Annual Meeting.
See NPAFC Newsletter No. 31: 15

The next drawing will take place at the Plenary Session of the 2014 Annual Meeting. Only non-agency personnel are eligible for the hat and the drawing. Each drawing entry must include the name and mailing address of the person who returned the high seas tag to national contacts (Addresses for Tag Returns) between October 15, 2011 and 15 days before the 2014 Annual Meeting.

Disk Tags
Several types of plastic disk tags have been placed on salmon and steelhead. These disk tags are about 3/4" (19 mm) in diameter and each is imprinted with a unique identification number.

red NPAFC-logo plastic disk tag (Fig. 1A and B)
other tags are red and white, or solid red plastic disks (Fig. 1C and D).

Electronic Tags
Several types of electronic data-recording tags have been placed on salmon and steelhead.

blue hexagonal tag (Fig. 2A; records water temperature)
green rectangular tag (Fig. 2B; records water temperature and fish swimming depth)
electronic cylindrical tag (Fig. 2C; records water temperature and fish swimming depth)
white cylindrical tag (Fig. 2D; records water temperature, fish swimming depth, and salinity)

Fig. 1. Disk tags.

	Fig. 2. Electronic tags.

What to do if you catch a tagged fish

collect tag (if the tag cannot be collected, then record the tag number and description)
record catch location, date, time, species, sex, length, weight, and fishing gear
collect scales for age and growth information

send the tags and other information to one of addresses below. Make sure to include your name, address, and a phone number, so we can send you your tag recovery reward and provide you with information on when and where in the ocean your fish was tagged and released. Or call one of the contact numbers listed below.

See our tag return poster for details (in English, Japanese, Korean, or Russian) .

Addresses for Tag Returns

Canada	Japan	Korea
Mark Saunders Pacific Biological Station Fisheries and Oceans Canada 3190 Hammond Bay Road Nanaimo, BC V9T 6N7 Canada Tel: 250-756-7145 E-mail: Mark.Saunders@dfo-mpo.gc.ca	Tsutomu Ohnuki Salmon Resources Division, Hokkaido National Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Research Agency 2-2 Nakanoshima, Toyohira-ku Sapporo 062-0922 Japan Tel: 011-822-2340 E-mail: tohnuki@fra.affrc.go.jo	Ki Baik Seong Youngdong Inland Fisheries Research Institute 424-1 Songhyun-ri, Sonyang-myeon, Yangyang-Gun Gangwon-Do 215-821 Republic of Korea Tel: 033-672-4180 E-mail: kbseong@nfrdi.re.kr
Russia	United States	NPAFC
Olga Temnykh Pacific Fisheries Research Center(TINRO-Center) 4, Shevchenko Alley Vladivostok 690950 Russia Tel: 4232-401-504 E-mail: temnykh@tinro.ru	Bill Heard National Marine Fisheries Service Auke Bay Laboratories, Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute 17109 Point Lena Loop Road Juneau, AK 99801 USA Tel: 907-789-6003 E-mail: bill.heard@noaa.gov	North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission Secretariat Suite 502, 889 West Pender Street Vancouver, BC V6C 3B2 Canada Tel: 604-775-5550 E-mail: secretariat@npafc.org
Maxim Koval Kamchatka Scientific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (KamchatNIRO) 18 Naberezhnaya St. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky 683602 Russia Tel: 4152-294-635 E-mail: koval.m.v@kamniro.ru

Results of Recent Tagging Experiments

Recoveries of high-seas tags in 2010 and tag releases in 2011 from high-seas research vessel surveys in the North Pacific Ocean NPAFC Doc. 1358, 2011

Recoveries of high-seas tags and tag releases in 2010 from high-seas research vessel surveys in the North Pacific Ocean NPAFC Doc. 1268, Rev. 1, 2010

Recoveries of high-seas tags in 2008-2009 and tag releases in 2009 from high-seas research vessel surveys in the North Pacific Ocean NPAFC Doc. 1197, Rev. 1, 2009.

Recoveries of high-seas tags in 2007-2008 and tag releases in 2008 from high-seas research vessel surveys in the North Pacific Ocean NPAFC Doc. 1119, 2008.