YoYo is a female common skate who held the record for the common skate being caught and released – 8 times.
Now we need a name for a new record holder – a male common skate currently known as tag 2412 – he was last recaptured at the recent Skate Tagathon and has now made the trip 9 times over an 18 month period !!
To celebrate this we have decided on a little competition to be open to anyone under the age of 14 –  just think up a suitable name …

Day one
saw some fantastic action in the Sound of Jura with ten boats and two kayaks taking 26 Common Skate to 210lb ….. regional press, Visit Scotland tourist officials and Alan Radford the economist who carried out the Government’s economic study of  the value of sea angling to the Scottish Economy were on board our press boat to witness first hand the  conservation efforts of these volunteer anglers .
We can safely say that they were all totally amazed to see these magnificent creatures and were fully supportive of the …

Some really special photos in the Skate Tagathon gallery.
 
This one shows 13 year old Jack Hope with his first Common Skate – it weighed in at 113lb, more than Jack himself !
 
There’s also a blackmouth dogfish.
The collection will be updated as more come in – please check back.
 
Copyright as always belongs the individual photographers concerned and/or SSACN.

The Special Event’s Team have just released their latest set of update notes for the upcoming Skate Tagathon; they may be downloaded in pdf form from here.

The Scottish Shark Tagging Programme
PRESS RELEASE – IMMEDIATE USE

Inaugural running of Common Skate Tagging Event – 8th-10th April
Once again dedicated sea anglers will be taking the long trip up Scotland’s West coast to help gather data regarding one of the nation’s shark stocks on behalf of the Scottish Shark Tagging Programme  ( SSTP – www.tagsharks.com ).
The SSTP already runs two tagging Events focussing on other species in trouble, but this will be the inaugural running of an Event where the focus will be on Common Skate. Around 75 sea …

Denis Kelly, SSACN’s Secretary is visiting to the prestigious Scuola Lingue Estere dell’Esercito  (Army Foreign Language School) in Perugia Italy to deliver talks on marine conservation, shark tagging and the highly emotive issue of shark finning.

On the first day Denis had a meeting with Brigadier General De Lutzio who said that the basis of the invitation was not only the subject of the talks, but the language contained in them plus the attendant message of conservation , sustainability, and responsibility of every individual to be aware that our marine environment …

The December update on the progress of the Scottish Shark Tagging Programme (SSTP) is now available in the Reading Room.
The SSTP relies heavily on the voluntary efforts of sea anglers and we would like to say a big thank you to all those who give so freely of their time and effort.
Since our last report in July this year, the SSTP has continued to develop apace – the number of sea anglers contributing to the SSTP has grown by around 40% (to 192) and thanks to their efforts plus the …

ID tags:
We currently use Dart tags produced by Floy with a small dart head.
Floy recommend that these tags are used on fish 8” – 24” (~20 – 61 cm) but we have decided to use this size for all our fish (for sharks, the minimum tagging size is currently 90cm – well in excess of the minimum size suggested) as shark skin is much tougher than ordinary fish and holds the tag in place more securely.
A lot of data on small fish is currently being lost due to …

A Background Document on the Spurdog  Squalus acanthias  has been developed by OSPAR following the inclusion of this species on the OSPAR List of threatened and/or declining species and habitats (OSPAR Agreement 2008-6).
The document provides a compilation of the reviews and assessments that have been prepared concerning this species since the agreement to include it in the OSPAR List in 2008.
The original evaluation used to justify the inclusion of S.acanthias in the OSPAR List is followed by an assessment of the most recent information on its status (distribution, …

The item is no longer available to watch.
This morning’s Animal 24:7 show featured an item on the SSTP’s work tagging skate at Crinan.
You can view it via the BBC website; the item is in two parts, the first part starts 7mins 30 secs into the programme and the second part starts 29mins 50 secs into it.
Some really terrific footage of Ian & Matty Burrett and the presenter catching some nice fish, including the recapture of a previously tagged one !
It also gives a good idea of what’s ahead for the …