I’VE SEEN THIS FISH BEFORE: RECAPTURE
OF TAGGED FISH

Three charter boats, 19 days at-sea, and over 2,500 fish sampled during our hook-and-line surveys across three marine reserve sites has made for a productive fall field season thus far. The ODFW Marine Reserves Program’s three ecological research scientists have been busy, often conducting surveys at multiple marine reserve sites simultaneously in an effort to take advantage of fall weather windows. While some of our surveys will continue through October we’ve wrapped up the hook-and-line surveys for the year, ending on a high note; during our last few days of hook-and-line surveys at Redfish Rock Marine Reserve we recaptured two fish that had been previously tagged during our spring field season.  

While catching two tagged fish doesn’t seem like a big deal—it is actually a rare occurrence in wild populations. Why? The odds of catching previously tagged fish are extremely small as there are, literally, many fish in the sea. These two recaptures provide us with important information about post-release survival. These fish were originally caught, measured for size, tagged, and then released during a pilot study using experimental longline gear. We worked in collaboration with experienced fishing captain Jeff Miles, who you might hear referred to by locals as the resident Redfish Rocks expert, off his commercial fishing vessel ‘Top Gun’ out of Port Orford. The pilot study compares fish composition, size, and abundance resulting from different fishing survey techniques. Last week’s recaptures—a black rockfish and a lingcod—show that these two species survived being caught on a longline, tagged by our team, and then released. We were also very interested to see that the lingcod and the black rockfish were both originally tagged and also recaptured within the marine reserve boundaries.

See more highlights from this year’s hook-and-line surveys on our Blog. Stay tuned for our end of the season hook-and-line newsletter on the Oregon Marine Reserves website this November.

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CONTACT US AT:   ODFW.MARINERESERVES@STATE.OR.US