Fish recaptured three years after being tagged by NAFC

Two fish have been recaptured three years after being tagged by the NAFC.

A thornback ray was caught by the Lerwick-registered Arcturus on the 8^th November east of Unst.

The ray had been tagged on NAFC’s research vessel Atlantia II in July 2017 and released near Fetlar.

The fish had only grown by a single centimetre.

A monkfish was caught on 13^th November by the new Ocean Challenge off Muckle Flugga.

Crew-member Arthur Johnson, who reported the recapture, had been the skipper of the Atlantia II when the fish was tagged off Scalloway in June 2016.

Since then the monkfish moved more than 100 km north, almost doubling in size.

Fisheries Research Assistant Connor Wood said: “With tagging you record the size of individual fish and when and where they are released.

“So, if they are caught again you can work out how much they’ve grown and how far they’ve travelled.”