Tag and release

[2] The Cooperative Fish Tagging Project is a citizen science project that was launched by the Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI)[3] in 1984, with the aim of collecting data on the movement, growth, and biology of marine fish, especially sharks and rays, in South Africa and the Indian Ocean region.

Commercial fishing charters sometimes collaborate with local researchers to carry out the tagging and collect the necessary data.

You’ll find the published recapture and release reports on their website,[6] and many references to their data in scientific journals.

Tags can provide valuable information on the population dynamics, distribution, migration, and behaviour of marine fish.

Sharks and rays, in particular, are often poorly studied and threatened by overfishing, habitat loss, and climate change.