MOTE MARINE LABORATORY

Top Tagger Award

For 3rd Quarter, congratulations go to Steven Candileri of Tampa, FL. Steven tagged 313 fish; 3 gag, and 310 mangrove snapper. Way to go Steven.

First runner-up was Richard Davis of Pensacola, FL. Richard tagged 210 fish; 22 gag, 183 red snapper, 4 scamp, and 1 red grouper.

Second runner-up was Doug Nolan of Westville, FL. Doug tagged 196 fish; 56 gag, 128 red snapper, and 12 red grouper.

To qualify for the "Top Tagger Award," you must tag the most of any one species, or a combination of three (red grouper, red snapper, gag, and/or vermilion snapper) in that quarter. For this project, we also need to know the size and whether the tagged fish represent all the target species caught on each trip or the percent they represent. For Example: Ten (10) red grouper tagged out of fifteen (15) caught.

The 2004 Fish Tag/Return Lottery was held early this year. We made a computer file of all of the tag numbers recaptures reported during the year 2004. Using random number generation in a spreadsheet program the winning number generated was 48496. Tag number 48496 was reported from a 16.5 inch red grouper captured in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Venice coast. It was tagged on 9/10/2004 and recaptured after 40 Days of Freedom on 10/20/2004, at the same location. The fish was in good condition and re-released. It was again recaptured 5 days later on 10/25/2004 at the same location, still in good condition and was released.  Fish number 48496 really likes this spot off Venice because it was caught a third time on 11/22/2004, 28 days after its last capture. The red grouper was still in good condition and had grown to 18 inches.  It was again released.  Multiple captures of the same fish yields important movement and growth data.

Please leave the tag in any fish when you release it.

The prize for the annual Tag Lottery is $100 for the fisher who recaptured the tagged fish and $100 for the fisher who originally tagged the fish.

Congratulations to Harry Berry, who recaptured red grouper number 48496 and reported all three recaptures of this fish.  Mr. Berry was also the originally tagger.

Cooperative Research Project Tag Lottery Winner

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER!!

Congratulations to Jeff Stark, captain of the Provider, a commercial long-line vessel out of Madeira Beach, Fl.  All tag numbers from fish that had been recaptured during February 15, 2005 to August 15, 2005 were placed into a computer file and a random number generator was used to choose the winning tag number 46971.  Red grouper 46971 was originally tagged off the Ft. Myers area on November 13, 2004 by MML Staff.  Jeff caught the grouper 163 days later on April 25, 2005 in the same area.

Web Site Design: Don Marshall