Cooperative Striped Bass Tagging Cruise

The images above are of the NOAA research vessel Oregon II

The images above show the trawls being brought aboard.

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Since 1988, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS); U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS); Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Service; North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Marine Fisheries; and other agencies have collaborated to conduct tagging of Atlantic Coast migratory striped bass on the wintering grounds off North Carolina and Virginia. The cruise is coordinated annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's South Atlantic Fisheries Resources Coordination Office headquartered in Morehead City, North Carolina. The primary objective on every cruise is to tag and release striped bass. The Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) Cooperative Winter Tagging Cruise is a compliance requirement of Amendment 5 of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Migratory Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan. The fish tagged from the mandatory monitoring program are used to assess annual mortality/survival of the coastal migratory stock in compliance with the plan. Tag return data also provide information on migratory routes, growth rates, migration rates and winter habitat use. Results are used by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, with the assistance of the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, to manage stocks of Atlantic striped bass in accordance with the Fishery Management Plan and its amendments. Preparation for the extensive use of geographic information systems (GIS) to analyze data to assess use of habitat offshore North Carolina is underway.

A second objective of the cooperative tagging cruise is to capture, measure, remove tissue, tag and release Atlantic sturgeon. Tagging is a provision of Amendment 1 to the ASMFC Atlantic Sturgeon Fishery Management Plan. The FWS Maryland Fishery Resources Office coordinates a cooperative coast wide tagging program for Atlantic sturgeon. This species is a "candidate species" for the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Operations are ongoing throughout the day and night.

The participants of the tagging cruises have been responsible for tagging over 30,000 striped bass.