Tag It Summer Fishing
July 2024
Pacific Islands Fisheries Group Tagging Update
A beautiful Omilu tagged by Thad Nakajima 5/25
Aloha to all the taggers, and happy summer. As many of you are familiar with, summer holds some of the best Ulua and Omilu fishing and generally a great time to be on the water. We welcome the return of large schools of Halalu, sardines, and Oama in our nearshore waters. This creates the opportunity to take keiki out fishing and perpetuate the love for our oceans in the next generation.
Thank you again for the great participation by our taggers, as we have pasted the halfway mark in 2024, we wanted to share some data related to the tagging program, highlights from May and June, and thank you again for the commitment to our resources.
Year to date, there have been 57 fish tagged from the volunteers of the program including Ulua, Omilu, Moi, Oio, and Kaku. Tagging has taken place on both Oahu and Hawaii so far this year.
Top Tagger - Da Scoreboard
Congratulations to our Top Tagger of the first half of the year - Eric Suzuki with 13 fish tagged. Kai Terayama, owner of Nanko’s Fishing Supply in Kaneohe, Oahu has provided a $25 gift certificate in recognition of your tagging efforts.
Thank you to Nanko’s Fishing Supply - Kaneohe, Oahu for sponsoring the recognition.
Tagged Fish - Highlights
May and June were great months for tagging, 28 fish were tagged and released and 2 tagged fish recovered.
Kemole Belanio 4 Omilu and 1 27” Ulua
Tommy Cabanting with 4 nice Uluas 30.5”, 27”, 26.75”, 24”
Eric Suzuki 4 Moi and 1 White Papio
Mitchell Delos Santos 36” & 27” Ulua
Camden Arrand 26” & 13” White Papio/Ulua
Kevin Mita 12 1/4” and 11 3/4” Omilu
Stuart Hee 31.75” Omilu
Keith Kamikawa 21.5” Oio
Ian Tominaga 17.5” Oio
Dan Frick 13.5” Moi
Thad Nakajima 11.25” Omilu
Tyler Kon 11” Omilu
Images of Tagged fish below:
Stuart Hee’s 31.75” Omilu
Thad Nakajima’s 11.25” Papio
Dan Frick’s 13.5” Moi
Ladd Yoshimura’s 19.5” Omilu (late post from 2023)
Ladd Yoshimura’s 24.5” Oio (late post from 2023)
Kevin Mita 11 3/4” Omilu
Kevin Mita 11 3/4” Omilu
Thad Nakajima 24.5” White Ulua
Kemole Belanio 27” Tagged White Ulua - Re-released. - A10457
Kemole Belanio 23.5” Omilu
Kemole Belanio 22.5” Omilu
Recoveries
We have received three recovered fish reported to PIFG this year. All Recovered Fish came from Hawaii Island.
Dan Frick - A12209 - Recovered 16.5” Omilu, - 260 Days at Liberty, Growth 3”, Distance Traveled 1/2 mile, Original Tagger Dan Frick.
Kemole Belanio Recovered and Released A10457 - 27” Ulua
Evan Montgomery (on behalf of Curtis Tavares) - A12822 - Recovered and released 35” Ulua
Tommy Cabanting (on behalf of friend) Recovered - U15507 - 30.5” Ulua - * Note the U15507 series is a DAR Tag, info has been recorded and reported to them. They believe the original tag was from 2017 timeframe, and the fisher was from Kona.
We are reaching out to original taggers to collect this data. A reminder, please submit/share data, as the cards can easily be lost.
Related News - S. Tokunaga Tournament
On June 6-9th the S. Tokunaga annual Ulua Challenge took place on the island of Hawaii. The top fish weighed 97.5 lbs and was caught in the barbless hook category. There were at least five fish tagged we know about from our friends in Hilo. Keep up the great work.
Tagging 20+ years in the Making - Legacy of Hawaii Tagging
Almost 20 years ago, Division of Aquatic Resources published a report on The 2000-2004 Hawaii Ulua and Omilu Tagging program. Tagging began in the Hawaiian Islands with the support and initiative of the Hilo Casting Club in 1997, where they worked with the state and started tagging Ulua. This program has spread throughout the rest of the Hawaiian Islands and to other species such as the deep 7, Pelagic species, and more.
What is of interest in this report is the reference to movement patterns in 2003 and the occurrence of Aweoweo. For many that remember, this was the last large run of Aweoweo throughout the islands. The tagged fish recovery shows that during this time frame, Omilu and Ulua did not move in their normal patters of counter clockwise from March to September, but instead moved in both directions. It is mentioned that other observations such as baby Oama offshore, the reverse current to the 2003 rough water swim and other observations from fishers and the community highlighted that currents were not their normal directions this time of year, which may have impacted multiple events. This data highlights the significance of tagging not just from a localized species understanding, but from a larger ecosystem based approach. You can view the report here: Link.
Good luck this summer and thank you for supporting the tagging efforts and our fisheries.
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
