The relatively new SSTP cap award scheme has hit the ground running and is certainly proving to be popular with the anglers!

There are three levels (as described here) with many anglers beign eligible for the bronze awards and a few working their way up to silver, such as Matthew Burrett . The silver cap on its own is a worthy prize, requiring 50 fish to be tagged and logged with the SSTP

But the real reason for this page is to highlight those few who have put in a huge effort to the SSTP and logged over 100 fish with us. This shows great dedication and many hours spent in front of a computer, inputting data online. These diligent few are the SSTPs Gold award taggers.

Ian Burrett: No surprises here, the skipper of ‘On Yer Marks’, Ian has been diligently tagging fish for many years now, submitting data to the Glasgow Museums tagging programme, the UK Shark Tagging Programme, and now the Scottish Shark Tagging Programme. Ian’s favourite fish is the Tope which he takes anglers out to fish for throughout the summer and autumn months before heading North to Crinnan to target skate when the weather is a bit colder.

Adrian Lauder: Skipper of the charter boat Gannet, Adrian is based out of Oban and take parties of anglers around the Firth of Lorne to mainly target skate, although spurdog are also fished for. Adrian has been tagging for many years now contributing to all three tagging programmes, with many skate records down for the Oban area.

Dale Robertson: Dale is the only private angler so far to have achieved the Gold award. Dale submits data on an almost weekly basis and his efforts certainly helped the SSTP reach its thousandth tag logged recently. Fishing from Iona V, dale fishes for many species and submits tag returns on tope, spurdog, skate and huss on a regular basis.

A big thankyou to these dedicated anglers who have really helped the SSTP grow and collect data on Scotland’s sharks, skates and rays over the past few years.