The Fish That Became Data
Three years ago, I released a 40-inch striped bass with a yellow plastic tag dangling from its dorsal fin. Last spring, I got an email from the American Littoral Society telling me that fish had been recaptured twice since I tagged it, traveling over 200 miles along the Atlantic coast and proving something unexpected about striper migration patterns. My fifteen minutes of extra work at the boat had contributed to real scientific understanding.
The fish tag program started for me in 2019, when I signed up with the American Littoral Society’s tagging project. They sent me a kit containing fifty numbered tags, an applicator tool, instruction sheets, and data cards. In exchange for tagging fish I would have released anyway, I became a citizen scientist contributing to one of the largest striped bass studies on the East Coast.
The Tagging Process
Tagging a striped bass takes about thirty seconds longer than a normal release, once you get the hang of it. You bring the fish to the boat, keep it in the water as much as possible, and use the applicator to insert a small T-bar tag into the muscle below the dorsal fin. The tag has a unique number and a return address where anyone who catches the fish can report it.
You record the date, location, and estimated length on a data card, which you submit to the organization periodically. That’s it—simple, minimally invasive, and valuable for research.
The 40-inch fish I tagged was caught near Sandy Hook, New Jersey, in early November during the fall migration. It was fat and healthy, probably headed south for the winter. I tagged it, snapped a quick photo, and watched it swim away without much thought about ever hearing from it again.
The Recapture Reports
Eight months later, I received the first recapture notification. A charter captain off Virginia Beach had caught my fish in July, nearly 200 miles south of where I’d tagged it. The fish had grown about two inches based on his measurement estimate. He released it again with the tag still attached.
The second recapture came in October, when a surf angler caught the same fish at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey—almost exactly where I’d first tagged it, but now nearly a year later. The fish had completed a full migration loop and returned to its fall staging grounds.
What the Data Shows
My fish was one data point among thousands, but those thousands of points are revealing patterns that matter for management. The tagging program has documented striped bass migrating further north than previously understood, staying in certain areas longer than expected, and showing strong site fidelity to specific locations year after year.
This information helps fisheries managers set regulations that actually protect fish where they are, not where we assume they are. It’s also revealing concerning trends about declining body condition and changed migration timing that may be linked to climate change and forage availability.
How to Get Involved
Several organizations run tagging programs for various species. The American Littoral Society handles striped bass, bluefish, and other East Coast species. Gray FishTag Research focuses on Southeast species including red drum and tarpon. NOAA’s Cooperative Tagging Program covers offshore species. Most programs are free to join and provide all the equipment you need.
The time investment is minimal—maybe an extra minute per fish—but the cumulative impact is significant. Thousands of anglers tagging fish creates a dataset no research vessel could replicate. We’re on the water constantly, catching fish in conditions and locations that scientists can’t access. Our observations matter.
The Bigger Picture
That 40-inch striper I tagged is still out there, presumably, swimming somewhere along the coast with its yellow tag. Maybe someone else will catch it and add another data point to the story. Maybe it will never be seen again. Either way, I’m proud that my fishing contributed something to understanding these magnificent fish.
If you catch and release striped bass or other species with tagging programs, consider signing up. The fish don’t mind the tag—recapture data shows no impact on survival or growth—and the information you generate helps ensure there will be fish to catch in the future. It’s a small thing you can do that adds up to something bigger than any individual angler.
