Aloha taggers,
Welcome to all of our new tagging participants and mahalo to everyone for continuing to contribute your valuable data and time. Always exciting for us to see pictures and data come in as volunteers send in their fish!
At the time of writing, we have surpassed 400 new tagged fish in 2026! We at Pacific Islands Fisheries Group are grateful to all of our participants for helping us build on this initiative, and we look forward to continued growth and success in the years to come.
In response to interest by some of our taggers, we are now considering awaʻaua as a species for tagging. Although the awaʻaua is not a regulated species by the State of Hawaiʻi, it is a popular food and sport fish, and one some of our project participants have been running into! If you tag an awaʻaua, please document the tag placement and send us a photo and/or brief description with your submission. The awaʻaua has a relatively soft skeletal structure and although some have been tagged before, none have been recovered. We want to assess how the tag may hold in the fish as we consider this species’ viability for our project.
Random Raffle
COAST Lantern
Zach Pang
Most Oio Tagged
10 Tags
Bryson Uno(7 oio in October!)
Moi Raffle
Lawaiʻa “Moi” T‑Shirt
Matt Mita
Mahalo to everyone who got out and tagged fish this month!
With the end of the year coming up, we are excited and grateful to be partnering with some amazing brands to recognize our participants for their efforts and contributions towards our project. We’ll have prize categories for our top taggers based on the data accumulated throughout the year.
Again, a huge mahalo to all of our sponsors for helping us show our appreciation to our project participants. Our success wouldn’t be possible without the collective support of Hawaiʻi’s fishing community, and we hope to continue building on our efforts towards mutual support!
Thad Nakajima showing us how it’s done with a nice Oio!
Solid White Ulua off the sand by Cale Fernandez!
Kevin and Matt Mita putting some nice Moi on the board!
Chunky flats Oio by Alan Higa!
One of a few nice Oio by Bryson Uno!
Another nice tagged Moi by Matt Mita!
Solid Omilu on the fly by Chase Neal!
Nice tagged Omilu by Collin Pungan!
