The ultimate goal of Tag It is to promote conservation and management of the fishery resources while still providing for the needs of the recreational, commercial and subsistence fishers of Hawaii. The program objective is to provide tagging awareness and education to gain community support.

Tag It will provide valuable growth and movement data on important coastal and pelagic marine fish species in Hawaii to advance the development of species-specific population models, as well as to improve our understanding of connectivity.  The tagging program will collaborate with motivated, engaged and informed fishermen working closely with responsible fishery scientists and managers.

The Tag It program is a combination of ongoing and former tagging projects that have been conducted by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Group (PIFG). We recognize that tagged fish have worn tags for up to 17 years. Although some of these projects have reached their funding completion, PIFG is committed to supporting long term fishery data. Therefore, Tag It will continue to maintain and collect valuable tag and recovery data for all PIFG tagged fish past, present and future.

In addition, Tag It will be expanding its volunteer tagging program to include the tagging and data collection of Ulua/papio (various species), Oio (bonefish: sharp and round jaw), Moi (pacific threadfin), Kaku (great barracuda), and Kawaele’a (Heller’s barracuda). We thank all of you for your interest and support of the Tag It program.