Successful tagging cruise - 552 redfish tagged at depth 500-800 meters » News

In June 2004, the Marine Research Institute (MRI) in Iceland, along with a team of experts from Star-Oddi, tagged 552 redfish at depths from 500m to 800m, using the Underwater Tagging Equipment (UTE) made by Star-Oddi. The tagging took place at the Reykjanes ridge, Iceland. According to MRI the purpose with this particular research is to investigate if there is mixing between Pelagic deep sea redfish on the Reykjanes ridge, Oceanic redfish and the Demersal deep sea redfish closer to the shore. Four tagged redfish have already been recaptured from the cruise, providing valuable information on their migration routes.

The state of the art UTE opens new fields in fish research, enabling researchers to tag deepwater species that have not been previously tagged, and can not survive being brought to the surface. The tags will help scientists to learn more about the behavior of various fish species, and provide information on fish migration, distribution, feeding behavior, movements and stock assessment. Data from the tags will further provide valuable information for the management of the fishery resources and help with decision making. Both electronic tags (measuring temperature and depth), and dummy tags, can be used in the UTE.