WHO: Commercial fishermen and researchers from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), and the University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) are all involved in the collaborative tagging program.

WHAT: Two types of tags are being used. Data storage tags, also called archival tags, look like bullets implanted just under the tail skin. T-bar tags stick out of the tail like colored antennae.

WHERE: So far, tagging has taken place in the Gulf of Maine and Southern New England, and plans are in the works to expand tagging into the Mid-Atlantic and offshore areas. The Northeast Consortium and the industry-financed Monkfish Research Set-Aside Program have paid for the work with overhead and staff/research support from GMRI, SMAST, and the science center.

WHY: The purpose of this enormous effort is to learn more about monkfish migration patterns, monkfish behavior, and the level of intermixing between the northern and southern management areas. Additional research, which is being conducted simultaneously on recaptured fish, is focusing on monkfish aging.

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