The Southwest Fisheries Science Center Cooperative Billfish Tagging Program Operations and Database

The Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) Cooperative Billfish Tagging Program (CBTP) is a conventional mark-recapture research venture between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists and the global recreational and commercial fishing community, with efforts focused in the Pacific Ocean. The CBTP has provided conventional analog tags to anglers around the world to tag billfish and other large pelagic species to collect distribution, abundance, movement, and morphometric data valuable in quantifying life history parameters used in management. The CBTP comprises the Billfish Tagging Program, the International Billfish Angler Survey, and outreach and reporting. All three components require year-round operations to distribute tagging equipment, deliver and receive surveys, and process, store, and manage data. This document details the technical aspects of the CBTP as it operates in 2021, including equipment acquisition, database structure, and operational design and execution. Given the CBTP protocols could serve as a template for current or future conventional mark-recapture programs, recommendations are also provided to improve upon current protocols. This document serves as the official reference for the program and provides detailed metadata for the historical dataset available to the public. 2021 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) SWFSC (Southwest Fisheries Science Center) Submitted https://doi.org/10.25923/3kcr-wd15 Public Domain 1861