Rutgers University researchers are asking anglers and commercial fishermen to keep an eye out for tagged winter flounder. Archival tags returned to the address listed on the tag will net fishermen a $200 reward.
Dr. Kenneth Able, Dr. Thomas Grothues, and graduate student Kaycee Coleman from the Rutgers’ Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, recently boarded a local trawler to capture and tag winter flounder on the Continental Shelf in the area known as The Mudhole. The research team tagged 51 winter flounder with archival (data storage) tags and 126 streamer tags and another 12 winter flounder with acoustic tags.
One week later, the team returned to locate the tagged fish with a hydrophone. Two fish were located, but the remaining fish had dispersed. Locating the fish with the acoustic tags helps to confirm survival of the tagging process and track movement of the winter flounder. More information on returning tags and the project please can be found at coseenow.net/ru-fish-tracking/.
This research project is funded in part by the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium. To learn more about the project and its objectives, visit this link.
