Tagging of the Northern Bluefin Tuna (thunnus Thynnus) in the East Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea in 2005

This paper represents a review of different tagging activities carried out on bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Except in Croatia where tagging has been done on captive specimens, all other tagging campaigns, performed within framework of joint European Tuna Tagging Programme, have been done on bluefin tuna released in the open sea. Besides the tagging programmes based on the deployment of large numbers of conventional “spaghetti” tags on small specimens and electronic tagging campaigns (using pop-up archival tags) performed on large specimens, a first attempt in bluefin tuna tagging was made with sonic tags. In some cases the availability of fish was the main obstacle in tagging campaigns, and it has been noticed that fish from bluefin tuna farms captured for fattening purposes could also be used for tagging purposes.