Tuna tagging

There were 55 crews and scientists on board the vessel headed by Fisheries Scientist Bruno Leroy.Ric Katosang, from Bureau of Fisheries here in Palau joined the group who will be sailing for two weeks.The group will be back in September 2.The Tuna tagging exercise in the Western and Central Pacific is a project of the Oceanic Fisheries Programme and Secretariat of the Pacific Community.Dr. Tony Lewis, Project Coordinator of the Pacific Tuna Tagging Project who is based in Australia said that the entire project cost $3 million and the last time they did a Tuna tagging exercise was fifteen years ago.The project started in August 2006 in Solomon Island, Papua New Guinea and half of New York.Dr. Lewis said they tagged and released 102,000 of Tuna and recaptured some 12,000.“When we got more funding, we expanded the work to Micronesia and we went to FSM, Pohnpei in June and stayed there for seven weeks and now we’re here in Palau,”Lewis said.Lewis said after Palau, the group will proceed to Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and then back to Solomon Islands.Lewis did not join the group on Sunday for the Tuna tagging exercise in Palau. He is set to go back to Indonesia ahead of the group.The vessel is based in Solomon Islands and arrived in Palau on Friday morning. The group is conducting a research into Big Eye, Skipjack, and Yellowfin Tuna movements and behavior using different type of tags.Tagging Tuna will provide better information on fishery exploitation rates and population sizes in the Western and Central Pacific.The data will allow the improvement of regional stock assessment for the 3 species.Every tag of tuna will have a yellow, green, or orange DART tag on its back, near the second dorsal fin. Each tag has a number and the words “SPC NOUMEA-Reward-www.spc.int/tagging” on it.Tags are inserted inside the fish body and study the fish movement of the fish and records depth, inside and outside temperature, position and time.