Tag Along

Fish tagging has been around in one form or another for many decades. But it took the formation of the Cooperative Game Fish Tagging Program to organize what had been local efforts and begin the process of channeling these efforts into an international program.

The late fishery scientist Frank Mather created the Cooperative Tagging Program in 1954 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, initially to tag bluefin tuna. But Mather’s process was soon applied to billfish around the world, as more crews began tagging and releasing sailfish and marlin.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) ran the tagging program for many