I first became aware of tagging fishes back in the 1970s, when I started tagging various fish for the American Littoral Society. These were known as spaghetti tags since they were long, thin and yellow. They showed the tag number and the contact number the person could call when he or she captured the fish.

Some fish, like tog, were often caught exactly where they were originally tagged. I don’t recall the species, but one tag was returned from Chicago. I feel pretty sure that fish made its final journey by truck. 

I found it very interesting how far some fish traveled in a very short time. Weakfish tagged in Delaware Bay would be recaptured down the coast off Virginia just a few days later.  Blues also covered ground in a short time.

Now we have satellite tags that cost $5,000 each. They may be expensive, but boy, do they ever put out the information.

If you followed striped bass as I did, you knew that they stayed tight along the cost as they migrated from New England down to the Chesapeake Bay where they spawned, then followed the same route back to New England in the summer. While that was true for many of the breeding-size stripers, it wasn’t true for all of them.

Once the big stripers were fitted with the satellite tags, we learned that some of them ran as far offshore as the Hudson Canyon, then came back in to the Nantucket Shoals where they spent a good deal of the summer. Others wandered offshore as well, with some going south before heading back to Delaware Bay to spawn.

When I was living in Virginia Beach, a group of what was left from the Virginia Coastal Conservation Association wanted the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to begin a tagging program. We put together a presentation explaining how such a program would work, with recreational fishermen tagging fish, then releasing them. Of course, this is how tagging programs have worked in many other locations.

Then one of the scientists from Virginia Institute of Marine Science said recreational fishermen were too stupid to correctly tag a fish. I don’t know what got their panties all in a bunch, but fortunately, another scientist from VIMS volunteered to teach us how to correctly tag and release fish. The program was saved and is still ongoing.

Tags are currently being placed in fish as small as menhaden and as big as sharks.

Speaking of sharks, a recent press release spoke of a new program where scientists are tagging sharks not to find out their habits, but to use their habits to help predict the course of hurricanes.

Certain sharks – if I remember correctly, smooth hammerheads and blue sharks were two mentioned in the release – have known habits that take them through the water column. These sharks are caught and fitted with satellite tags on the top of their dorsal fins. By being there, the tags stand a better chance of clearing the surface of the water and transmitting the data back to the receiving stations.

When the water temperature data is received by the scientists, they can use the information to predict the probable path of a hurricane. That is something entirely different from what tagging has been used for in the past. Even satellite tags were only used to find out where the fish had traveled over what period of time. 

New artificial reef

The Calcasieu Pass, which began life as a supply ship out of New Orleans, then was converted to a 180-foot menhaden boat that ran out of Reedville, Va., for 30 years, was recently prepared and sunk at the Del-Jersey-Land Reef. Coleen Marine from Norfolk, Va., did the work to prepare the boat for its final service as an artificial reef.

Once the boat passed the Coast Guard inspection and the EPA gave it the OK, it was towed to the Del-Jersey-Land Reef site and sunk, also by Coleen Marine.
In the past, I have observed the work of Coleen Marine as they have prepared and sunk several vessels at Delaware artificial reefs. Delaware anglers are fortunate to have so may reefs spread from Delaware Bay to the Del-Jersey-Land 26 miles out from the Indian River Inlet Bell Buoy.

The current sinking cost $285,000 and was paid from Federal Sport Fish Restoration Funds matched by Delaware’s general fishing license at a 75/25 ratio.
Delaware has also been lucky in other ways. When New Jersey refused New York’s offered donation of old subway cars, we were more than happy to accept. When the dredge company needed a location for the rocks they dredged up from the Delaware River, Delaware suggested our Upper Bay reef sites.

Delaware anglers now reap the benefits.