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NEWSLINESAUSTRALIAN TAGGING PROGRAM
ALBACORE FROM
TASMANIA TO FIJI
An albacore tuna released by the
Sports Fishing Club of Tasmania
boat Diversionback in April 2012 off
Tasman Island, near Eaglehawk Neck in
south-east Tasmania, has recently been
recaptured ... a long way from its initial
release location.
A hand-written letter to the Tagging
Program revealed that the fish was
recaptured by a longliner close to the Yasawa
Islands on the north-west side of Fiji. On 25
November 2017 a crewmember aboard the
vessel retrieved the tag out of the albacore,
which had been at liberty a whopping 2045
days (five years and seven months) and
is estimated to have grown from 2kg to
11kg during this time. It was recaptured
a staggering 2147 nautical miles from the
cooler waters of its release location.
This recapture sets a new tagging
program record for the furthest distance
travelled by an albacore tuna, eclipsing
the previous record of 1909 nautical
miles travelled by a fish released off Port
MacDonnell, SA, which was recaptured
deep in the Indian Ocean.almost doubled Ben’s release estimate
of 18kg.
This recapture is another timely reminder
for clubs and anglers to return their
completed tag cards to NSW DPI promptly
so they can be recorded into the database.
And if you catch a tagged fish, please be
sure to report it to NSW DPI.CRAZY COBIA RECAPTURE
On 25 January 2018 Luke Leech of
Nickol Bay SFC was fishing solo when he
recaptured two different tagged cobia on
the same day whilst fishing off Enderby
Island in Western Australia.
Luke later found out that he had tagged
the first cobia in a nearby location 170 days
earlier, in August 2017, during the annual
King Bay GFC tournament. What makes
this recapture even more unbelievable is
that Luke was back out again fishing on 26
January 2018 and caught the same cobia
for a third time!
The second tagged cobia recaptured by
Luke on 25 January was originally released
by Brenton Cartledge aboard Nickol BaySOUTHERN BLUEFIN
VISITS NEW ZEALAND
During the winter of 2017 the tagging
program had two Australian-tagged
southern bluefin tuna recaptured in New
Zealand. The first was a fish released
by Adelaide GFC boatSquiffyoff Victor
Harbour in February 2016, but the
second recapture went cold and the
whereabouts of the first release tag card
were unknown. We mentioned both these
recaptures inBlueWaterissue 126 and
hoped that the tag card would eventually
be returned to NSW DPI. Fast forward
to February 2018 and the program has
received the tag card, revealing that
the fish was originally tagged by Ben
Croughan while fishing the Victor Harbour
Coast 2 Coast Tuna competition on 2
February 2015 aboardAlice Noel.
Ben’s tuna had been at liberty 850 days
and was caught 1894 nautical miles east-
south-east of its original release location
by commercial fishing boatBig Eyeoff
Hawke’s Bay on the east coast of New
Zealand’s North Island. By that time the
southern bluefin was estimated at 35kg
and had a fork length of 118cm, havingThe long-distance movements of two recently
recaptured tagged tuna: an albacore that
swam from Tasmania to Fiji, and a southern
bluefin that swam from South Australia to
northern New Zealand.