Estimates of movement and life-history parameters of yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi): how useful are data from a cooperative tagging programme?

Tag recapture data for kingfish obtained from a cooperative tagging program me were used to assess the usefulness of such information for estimating mo vement and life-history parameters. Numbers tagged and recaptured varied am ong fishing zones, seasons and years. Recapture rates varied among areas, f ishers and sizes of fish. Small fish showed less movement than large fish, but few fish >1000 mm TL were tagged. The majority of fish were recaptured within 50 km of where they were tagged, although there was an indication th at fish that were at large longer moved further. The maximum distance moved was 3000 km and the maximum time at liberty was 1742 days. Quantitative an alyses of life-history parameters from data collected in cooperative taggin g programmes are generally not possible because there are usually no estima tes of fishing effort, tag-related mortality and tag loss. These are likely to vary not only along the coast, but also among taggers. Cooperative tagg ing programmes provide some useful biological data (e.g. movement from poin t x to point y, and growth), but dedicated tagging programmes may be needed for estimates of other life-history parameters (e.g. mortality) and of abu ndance.