Shark stocks in Scottish waters are severely threatened and though we believe the Scottish Government could provide real leadership by setting aside areas to provide a springboard for the regeneration of stocks they have stated they need scientific data before they are willing to take any action, such as declaring the area a Nursery area, yet at the same time have no process in place to gather that data.

To try and meet this need, SSACN run two major tagging events which provide the foundation of the Scottish Shark Tagging programme.

The Tagathon weekend :: This takes place annually in late autumn and is centred around Lochs Sunart and Etive. The main target of the event is spurdog which are currently around 5% of their historical biomass and evidence from anglers suggests that Lochs Sunnart and Etive and surrounding waters have unique resident populations and that the spurdog pup in the region.

The Sharkatag weekend :: Another annual event, but this ones takes place around mid-summer from marks around the Solway and SW Scotland with the focus on tagging tope, smoothound and collecting data on other shark species.

On either weekend, anglers fish from the shore, kayaks or boats and though the main aim of the weekend is to tag as many sharks as possible, they are also intended to raise the public awareness of the urgent need for sharks, ray and skate protection in Scottish waters.