Tag and release is a form of catch and release

Catch and release

Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing intended as a technique of conservation. After capture, the fish are unhooked and returned to the water before experiencing serious exhaustion or injury...

 fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 in which the angler

Angling

Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...

 attaches a tag to the fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, records data such as date, time, place, and type of fish on a standardized post card, and submits this card to a fisheries agency or conservation organization. Anglers who catch tagged fish report their location, date, and time, as well as the tag number to established points of contact. South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 has had such a program since 1974.

External links

• South Carolina Marine Game Fish Tagging Program
• Southern California Marlin Online Tag and Release Program
• Billfish Database and the Cooperative Marine Game Fish Tagging Program
• The Billfish Foundation (TBF), 2008 Tag and Release Awards Ceremony
• Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI) is a division of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR)
• The Oio Tagging Project, Hawaiian bonefish Tagging Program

See also

• Bird ringing
  Bird ringing
  Bird ringing or bird banding is a technique used in the study of wild birds, by attaching a small, individually numbered, metal or plastic tag to their legs or wings, so that various aspects of the bird's life can be studied by the ability to re-find the same individual later...