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Critical Information for All Fisherman Recovering
Tagged White Seabass

White Seabass heads should be saved for tag analysis. In San Diego County, you may deliver heads to:

Hubbs-SWRI headquarters in Mission Bay, San Diego 595 Ingraham St., San Diego, CA 92109 (619) 226-3870

Leon Raymond Hubbard Jr. Marine Fish Hatchery, Carlsbad 4200 Garfield St., Carlsbad, CA 92008 (760) 434-9501

Elsewhere in southern California: Call Jock Albright, OREHP Grow-Out Coordinator at (949) 722-7274

Desired data related to each White Seabass head: (Legal size is 28")

Fisherman's name and phone number, date and location of catch, length and weight, sex, & stomach contents.

It takes approximately 5 years for White Seabass to reach sexual maturity—a size of about 28". All "short" fish should be immediately released. Small White Seabass can be easily confused for/with White Croaker and Sand Bass.

Q. Why does the Department of Fish and Game attach tags to fish?

A. Biologists tag fish for many reasons, including:
(1.) To follow fish movement over time and to ascertain migration patterns.
(2.) To discover habitat preferences for fish at different ages, or reproductive stage.
(3.) To determine how fast fish grow.
(4.) To get information on fish mortality and population size.

Each species has a unique life history so researchers must tag individuals of the species in which they are interested. Since the return rate for most fish tagging projects is 5% or less, many fish must be tagged in order to gather meaningful information.

Q. What is the difference between an external Floy-tag and a coded-wire tag?

A. An external floy-tag is a plastic filament two to three inches long, usually with a "T" base on the end that is inserted into the fish. The "T" anchors the tag into the dorsal muscles or bones of the fish to keep the tag in place. A colored sleeve on the filament contains printed information regarding who to contact when the tag is recovered. The coded-wire tag is a tiny piece of stainless steel wired, injected just under the skin on the head of the fish or into the snout (nose). The wire, commonly called CWT, is etched with a binary code to cross reference the origin of the fish and other information. A metal detector is used to find CWT's tags in the fish. Often times hatchery produced salmon and white seabass have code-wire tags inserted before they are released. The Sport Fish Research Project in Long Beach, at (310) 590-5117, encourages people who take legal size white seabass to retain the head and contact the Project to determine the presence of a CWT.

Q. What should I do if I catch or find a tagged fish?

A. Record the date and location where caught (or found), the length of the fish and the tag number (if present). Each numbered tag has a unique serial number on it, and usually the phone number or address of an agency to contact. Anglers should release any sub-legal size tagged fish, after recording the tag number and carefully measuring the total fish length.

If the fish is a White Sea Bass, the fisherman should save the fish's head, the head then will be transferred to a facility where it will be scanned to see if it contains one of the tiny coded wires implanted by hatchery personnel. Most people in the hatchery program figure a fish in the 30 to 35-inch class will have the oldest tag imbedded in its cheek.

Q. Do marine fish hatcheries increase the number of fish for fishermen?

A. For decades salmon hatcheries have been producing fish which contribute to ocean and river salmon populations. California has nine hatcheries that collect eggs from returning adult salmon The eggs are fertilized, incubated, and the juvenile fish released to the wild. The only marine hatchery now in production is in northern San Diego County. It is producing annually about 100,000 juvenile white seabass at this time, and will eventually produce about 400,000 per year. Each of the white seabass are tagged in order to determine the hatchery contribution to the ocean seabass population.