Toothfish Tagging Program

Since 2003, CCAMLR has developed a unique and world-leading toothfish tagging program to provide abundance estimates for toothfish stocks, to analyse their movement patterns and to inform population age structure in integrated stock assessments. Toothfish survive the tagging experience well, even when they are recovered from depths of up to 2000 m, and tag recapture methods offer the most feasible way for CCAMLR to develop estimates of stock abundance leading to stock assessments. 

Vessels are required to tag and release fish with uniquely numbered tags during their normal operations and to report all recaptures of tagged fish. The detailed requirements of the tagging program are outlined in Conservation Measure 41-01. More than 400 000 toothfish have been tagged under this program and more than 50 000 have been recaptured.

The CCAMLR tagging program is administered by the Secretariat, which provides standardised tagging protocols and tagging equipment to fishing vessels engaged in the program. This standardisation is an essential component of the tagging program. The Secretariat receives and stores data on all fish that are tagged as well as the subsequent recapture of those fish. Once each recapture is linked to the tagging event it can be used in population estimates as well as to examine movement and growth of fish.

Skates are also be tagged successfully in some of CCAMLR's fisheries, both for estimation of species abundance and to determine any potential negative impacts as a result of commercial toothfish operations. Where tagging of these species does occur, operators are required to follow the CCAMLR protocols on toothfish and skate tagging.

CCAMLR Tagging Program Equipment Ordering Information provides information on obtaining tagging equipment from the CCAMLR Secretariat.