CCAMLR tagging program: tag link status update

In order to reflect the level of confidence when linking a tag recapture to a tagging event, as well as an indication of the time and effort taken to make the link, the Secretariat introduced in 2011 a tag recapture link status code.  For the 2011 season, a total of 1433 tags have been returned; 50% provide an exact match with tag numbers held in the database, 22 % provide an exact match with tag numbers but had inconsistent ancillary data. For those tags that did not provide exact or unique matches only 109 (8%) could not be successfully linked using additional information. For the current season (2012), a total of 164 tags have been returned; 64% provide an exact match; 34% provided an exact match with inconsistent ancillary data; and less than 2% could not be successfully linked. An approach to developing thresholds for ancillary data to be used in allocating tag link status are provided for comment.