Don Hammond of the Dolphinfish Research Program said that the more involvement by fishermen, the better data he can collect, and ultimately, better knowledge of the fish and its habits.
“We current publish a newsletter every month except November,” Hammond said.”(It) discuses ongoing studies and findings from our tagging program.
“Getting involved with your tagging program is free. We’ll give anyone who wants to tag dolphin a free application kit and five tags. More tags will be supplied as needed.
“One thing I want to emphasize is that tagging dolphin is beneficial in ways more than just having a recapture,” Hammond said. “Just the information we get from a tagged fish that would be reported gives us valuable data in terms of where the fish was caught, the size of the fish, depth of water and so forth. Over time, we can make a documented case as to where he best recreational fishing is located.
“(And) if there’s ever a need to protect the recreational fishery, we can already provide a 10-year baseline of hard data to prove the above statement. In the end, the Dolphinfish Research Program is by and for the recreational dolphin fishermen.,It is our goal to benefit fishermen.”
For more information, visit www.dolphintagging.com.
