TAG Alabama
TAG ALABAMA University of South Alabama Website
Tag Alabama is an angler driven saltwater recreational tagging program sponsored by the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Alabama and the Fisheries Ecology Lab at the University of South Alabama. It gives anglers the opportunity to participate in user-based data and research on Spotted Seatrout, Red Drum, Atlantic Tripletail and Atlantic Tarpon in coastal Alabama.
Each tagger attends a training workshop where they receive a tagging kit, instructions on handling and tagging, and support for data entry in a web logging system (https://tags.usouthal.edu). Since 2018, Tag Alabama has grown to include 1100 participating anglers (over 900 recapture anglers,193 taggers) resulting in over 10,017 fishes tagged and 1,385 recaptures reported.
With the help of anglers, we have observed broadscale spatial and temporal movement patterns for these species, 95% of which have been either Red Drum (44%) or Spotted Seatrout (51%). Red Drum recapture rates (18%) and days at liberty (152 ± 182 days) were higher than Spotted Seatrout (9% recapture rate; 84 ± 94 days at liberty). Distance traveled from the initial capture location was similar between both Red Drum (17 ± 28 km) and Spotted Seatrout (14 ± 17 km) with 52% of Red Drum and 45% of Spotted Seatrout recaptured within 5 km of their initial location. Broad-scale seasonal movement patterns were also apparent between cooling (September - February) and warming (March - August) seasons for these species. Tag Alabama promotes angler engagement in data collection and incentivizes catch and release fishing to promote the successful conservation of these important fisheries.
All anglers who capture and report a tagged fish will receive their choice of a hat or t-shirt.
If you are interested in participating in this program or have questions, please let us know at info@ccaalabama.org or call the CCA State Office 251-478-3474.