REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH ... - Iccat

WORK PLANS
tagging experiments useful to evaluate the effectiveness of protected area to reduce the fishing mortality exerted
on juveniles (i.e., to evaluate the residence time within protected areas and movement rates between the freeaccess
areas and the protected area).
Given the urgent requirement for stock assessments and potential regulatory measures, we propose to begin in
2011 a number of small scale exploratory tagging and promotional pilot projects, as precursors to the main
program, as well as a meeting devoted to the design the plan and budget of the full scale tagging experiments.
Given the ocean-basin scale of the field work, the tagging program will need to be a multi-national effort. All
ICCAT members and Cooperating non-Contracting Parties would be approached to assist with the program,
including with respect to the granting of access to the tagging cruises in the various EEZs, with the publicity
campaign concerning tag recoveries and reporting, the recovery of tags and the and the initial validation of the
reported tags. However, the ICCAT should take the lead role of program coordination through the formation of a
special Tagging Program staff unit that would be fully responsible of most steps in the tagging program (a
framework similar to the recent IOTTP ran by the IOTC).
The unit would comprise the following staff:
1. Chief Scientist - Co-ordinate the program, senior staff supervision, data analyses, reporting.
2. Field Coordinator, - Responsible for field logistics, tagging protocols, supervision of tagging staff.
3. 4 Senior Tagging technicians.
4. Promotions/Liaison/support officer
5. 1 administrator and 1 secretary
6. 3 field technicians in the main landing ports in charge of tag recoveries.
Ad hoc support by in-country scientist experts in tagging would also be very useful and could be used instead of
the Tagging Staff in some components of the tagging program. The program should ensure that all taggers have a
full tagging efficiency, reducing as much as possible the immediate tagging mortality or loss of tags. The use of
the same bait boat and of the same Tagging Staff during most tagging operations, a method used by the IOTC,
might be considered.
From past experience in historic tagging programs coordinated by ICCAT, it was evidenced that many
recaptured tags for which data are not validated and corrected at the time of the report are then not usable for the
majority of scientific studies. Keeping in mind the costs of a Tagging Program, the validation and the potential
correction of recoveries in a short time as well as a detailed report of the released fishes are an important issue in
all large Tagging Programs. These activities, and the continuous update of a specific friendly user Tagging data
base, are important tasks which justify the recruitment of a Tagging Staff, even if the contributions of national
scientists and ICCAT secretariat are essential.
Estimation of tag reporting rates should also be an important target in the tagging program. For estimates of
fishing mortality, and to a lesser extent natural mortality estimates, of tagged fish, tagging results need to be
representative of mortality rates of the population in general, and estimates of tag-reporting rates for all
significant fisheries must be obtained. For purse seine fisheries, this estimate of reporting rates can easily be
accomplished by means of a tag-seeding experiment, and a lot of emphasis should be given on doing such a tagseeding
experiment before and during the entire tagging program.
The tagging program should also include a wide range of publicity and rewards that are essential in the success
of such a large scale program in order to maximize the report of tagged fishes. These publicity actions should,
for instance, cover (1) appropriate incentives for the return of tags attractive cash rewards, caps, t-shirts, etc.,
(2) Prompt payment of rewards, along with a letter to the tag finder advising full details of the tagged fish, (3)
Widespread multilingual publicity regarding the program via tagging posters, (4) ads in local newspapers, radio,
TV to advertise special events such as tag lotteries, (5) Regular visits of fisheries officers to unloading ports to
personally ensure that the tag return process is functioning smoothly.
Timetable-Cost and financing plan
The main AOTTP tagging operations would be conducted for a period of 2 years by 3 pole and line vessels, but
a number of small scale and exploratory tagging, promotional pilot projects, should be conducted before and
during the AOTTP.
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