Summer 2024 Fish Tagging Results
September 2024
Pacific Islands Fisheries Group Tagging Update
Full colors of an Omilu caught by Kevin Mita 8/6/2024
Aloha to all the taggers, thank you for the continued participation and support. During July and August we had 29 tagged fish and 01 recovery. Congratulations to Kevin Mita on his first Ulua and to Tommy Cabanting on a 40” Ulua tagged and released.
This month, we saw Ulua A12822 Recaptured for the third time. The Ulua originally tagged by Kahana Itozaki (date unknown) was then caught April 12, 2024 by Curtis Tavares (Shared by Evan Montgomery) and re-released, and finally recovered by Riley Taga on August 18, 2024. The fish was at total liberty for 128 days, had grown 2", and was recovered both times near the same spot it was caught. We are working on collecting the original data now.
Image 1 is from the capture in April 2024, Image 2 is from the Ohana Fishing Tournament, where the Ulua was recaptured in August 2024. The Ulua was at liberty for 128 days, grew 2" and gained 1 lb. Thank you to Evan, Curtis, Riley, and Kahana for your role in recording the life history and growth of Ulua A12822.
Photo 2 retrieved from: Kama'aina Nissan, Inc. Facebook. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=883986610418198&set=pcb.883986683751524
Tagged Fish - Highlights
July and August were the top bi-monthly period for tagging, A total of 34 fish were tagged. Highlights include:
Kevin Mita 27” Ulua and 12 Omilu!
Tommy Cabanting with 4 Ulua, up to 40”
Kupono Oshiro 3 Omilu
Eric Suzuki 3 Moi
Mitchell Delos Santos 36.5” Ulua and 25.5” Omilu
Kyle Ragan 34” Ulua
Camden Arrand 16” Omilu
Keith Kamikawa 18” Oio
Riley Taga 37” Ulua Recaptured
Matt Mita 11.5” Omilu
Dan Frick 27” Ulua
Images of Tagged fish below:
Please continue to share your fish pics, if you need help with uploading, please reach out.
Kevin Mita 27" Omilu
Kevin Mita Omilu
Kevin Mita Omilu
Great shot 27" Ulua by Dan Frick
Tommy Cabanting tagging and releasing 40" Ulua.
The recent recovery noted that there was a lot of moss on the tagged fish, speaking with the program director, Clay Tam, he explained that What is interesting about algae on tags - most have brown algae because they are in deeper water, but Paopao recoveries often have green algae. It indicates what type of habitat the fish are in. For example the green, might indicate that they are in freshwater. Algae rapidly grows and it starts to form an initial layer as soon as 8 days after release. Another example often seen is Kahalas often come up clean, which is an indicator of deep water. Fish that forage within 100 fathoms often will have some algae as this is the depth light still penetrates. Sometimes tags also might be bitten off, or shortened, but we are not sure what might be occurring here. What’s good to know, is even if it is just the barb left, we can still recover the numbers and log it.
Please reach out to pacificfisheries@gmail.com if you would like to share any interesting tagging stories, talk story, or provide feedback on how we can improve the Tag It program.
Mahalo for supporting the PIFG Vision
PIFG Tag It Team
