From: Recovery Officer [mailto:iccatrecovery@gmail.com]
Sent: 04 July 2017 01:07 PM
Subject: Tuna Tagging Program update

Hi Sally,

I hope this mail finds you well. Thank you so much for your help spreading the awareness around the tuna tagging project a few months ago.

To fill you in on where we are now, our tagging efforts were severely hampered by bad weather and a distinct lack of tuna for the time of year. This meant we were nowhere close to the (very optimistic) target of tagging 3000 tuna in 3 months, and only managed to tag little over 200 tuna. Tagging operations have now ceased for the time being, so that is what we have to work with until next season. Understandably this compromises the program somewhat, but more importantly there is now more emphasis on each and every tag out there. Therefore, for us it is utterly important that as many people as possible are fishing for tuna, are aware of the program keeping their eyes open for tags and will report the tags when landed.

With this is mind please could I ask you to send out this information to your mailing list to keep the tuna tagging program on everyone’s mind when going out fishing? This would be a really big help to us, and would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions/concerns or information from your side please feel free to get hold of me.

Kind regards

Craig Haley
Recovery Officer
CapMarine (Pty) Ltd

From: Recovery Officer [mailto:iccatrecovery@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, 06 February 2017 3:05 PM
Subject: South African tuna tagging project

Good day,

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) have initiated the Atlantic Ocean Tropical Tagging Program (AOTTP) to collect information on tuna abundance, movement and growth to improve the management of tuna in the Atlantic Ocean. The AOTTP has now been launched in South Africa with a tagging team that aim to tag up to 3000 yellowfin and skipjack tuna over the next three months.

The success of this project is hugely dependent on the awareness of all tuna fishermen to look out for and report on any tagged fish caught.

Over the next three months 3,000 tuna will be tagged with either red, yellow tags on their left hand side, and some will have an additional tag on their right hand side. Tagging will predominately take place in the Western Cape, but tuna are likely to be caught all around the South African coastline. Our job at CapMarine is to retrieve as many tags as possible over the next three years, and this is where we could really use your help.

If anyone catches a tagged tuna during the program, we ask to please get hold of us by sending an SMS to 063 634 2503, after which we will call you back as soon as possible to record some information,including:

1. tag code(s)
2. fish length
3. location caught
4. date caught

A small cash reward and AOTTP t-shirts will be issued upon the retrieval of the tags. We will also buy the tuna back from you should it have a red tag on it.

Please could I ask you to forward this information on to all your members, this would greatly help us get the word out and create awareness around this exciting project and greatly contribute to its success.

Kind regards

Craig
Recovery Officer
CapMarine PTY