In December 1995, tags were implanted in 51-71 cm bluefin tuna near Tsushima island in the strait between Japan and Korea. As of December 1996, several had been recovered.One yielded the track shown above, which we show with the permission of the Japanese National Research Institute for Far Seas Fisheries. Other tags in that group provided the basis of the track consistency data quoted elsewhere (unpublished data). Also in December 1996 another 50 animals were tagged at the same location.

Tags have also been applied to large (to 350 lb) Atlantic bluefin tuna and to sturgeon, but none of these have yet been recovered. Implantation in each case was in the body cavity, although experiments by Brill et. al (1995) with small dummy tags in small tuna suggest that implants will also be retained in dorsal muscle.

Further use of archival tags is scheduled for bluefin tuna in the Atlantic (U S National Marine Fisheries Service) and Pacific oceans (Japanese National Research Institute for Far Seas Fisheries).

Back to Archival tag summary


Northwest Marine Technology, Inc
P.O. Box 427, Ben Nevis Loop Road, Shaw Island, Washington 98286
Telephone (360) 468-3375 Fax (360) 468-3844