Volunteers tagged more than 19,000 saltwater fish in 2021, announced Susanna Musick, head of the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program.

The program is a cooperative effort between the Marine Advisory Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Virginia Saltwater Tournament at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

The program uses state saltwater license funds to train volunteer anglers to tag recreationally important finfishes, Musick said. The data collected helps anglers and managers learn more about fish migration, growth and habitat use, she said.

Last year, the total number of fish tagged was 19,160, and 1,473 recaptures—catching an already-tagged fish—were also recorded.

Repeating at Top Tagger was Ed Shepherd of Yorktown, who placed more than 6,000 tags in fishes.For more information on the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program, visit www.vims.edu/vgftp.
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