WHY TAG FISH?
Do you know why Flathead migrate hundreds of Kilometres to Fraser Island? We don’t either yet, but without tagging we wouldn’t even be able to ask the question. What if we change something on Frazer Island without knowing the answer to that question? Will it affect them?
It might sound counter intuitive but fish are better off with fishers. While there are some that believe that we should leave well alone the reality is the fish we target face a range of potential threats, not just overfishing. Without fishers providing intelligence many issues caused by environment change, development or harvesting practices go unnoticed until the only solution is drastic action.
Isn’t it better to fish guilt free knowing that the fish you value are in good shape?
Looking after the fish you target
Suntag is the only long term recreational fishing program in the country that has consistently helped improve the knowledge and handling of the species fishers target. With over 30 years of data collected on all the key species that rec fishers target this is the biggest recreational species knowledge base in the world. It’s so big that we are discovering new things about fish species all the time and we will be for years to come.
Looking for a challenge
Tagging offers endless challenges. There are species that we need in numbers, there are locations hardly fished we need to know about. There are tagging challenges and fishing competitions that are tagging only. There is even tagging effort that helps predict the future. Suntag fishers share their skills because they want others join in the task of helping the fish they target. No matter where you fish, Suntag can help you sharpen your skills the best way possible – by getting you out on the water and being successful.
Looking for recognition
Tagging offers a wide range of recognitions. For those that work hard on a single species there are Tagging Achievement Awards. For those that are good at catching the big ones there are Tagging Masters. For those that focus on social media, interesting stories make it onto our Suntag Facebook page and go out to tens of thousands of fishers each week. Our best tagger has tagged nearly 25,000 fish. Now isn’t there a tagging story you would like to tell?