INPFC/NPAFC High-Seas Salmonid Tag-Recovery Database

Until 2005, the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS), University of Washington maintained the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission (INPFC) and North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) high-seas salmonid tag-recovery database (INPFC/NPAFC high-seas salmonid tag-recovery database). In April 2007, SAFS transferred an electronic copy of the data file in the original INPFC format (fixed-length IBM format text file) to the NPAFC Secretariat (Myers and Walker 2007).

In 2007, the Working Group on Salmon Tagging (WGST) was established by the Committee on Scientific Research and Statistics (CSRS) to manage the INPFC/NPAFC high-seas salmonid tag-recovery database and to coordinate high-seas tagging activities of the Parties. The WGST adopted a MS-Excel file format for the data file and modified the formats and codes of the database (WGST 2008).

In 2011, the NPAFC requested the Secretariat to assume responsibility for housing and maintaining the INPFC/NPAFC high-seas salmonid tag-recovery database and progress toward making these data available on the web. As a first step in preparing the data for web-access, the Secretariat standardized and revised the format of the MS-Excel data, and updated tag recovery information to 2010 (WGST 2011). 

Researchers using these data are cautioned to possible biases in the data caused from nonrandom area of tag release and from recovery of tagged fish in coastal areas that may not reflect the basin or area of origin. See a discussion of these issues in Myers et al. (1996).