TAGGING SPERIMENTAL ACTIVITY OF BLUEFIN TUNA INDIVIDUALS USING THE ORIGINAL APPLICATOR (SMAT) AND BIOMETRIC TRACKING THROUGH A SYNCHRONIZED UNDERWATER VIDEO RECORDING SYSTEM SOUTHERN MEDITERRANEAN, MALTA CHANNEL - FISH AND FISH LTD MALTA OCEANIS Ltd Dr. Giovanni COZZOLINO 1, Capt. Paolo PIGNALOSA 2, Dr. Jean Pier SILVA 3 1) Marine Biologist, Scientific Responsible; 2) Oceanis Ltd, Administrator, Operative Coordinator, 3) Dir. Gen. Cofrepeche S.A. Activity Report 2013 1
INTRODUCTION The idea of the experiment stems from OCEANIS Ltd s intuition that, coordinating and integrating various events that have occurred during the 2013 bluefin tuna fishing campaign in the Mediterranean, has succeeded in a very short time, taking advantage of its agility and specific field competence, to design and implement a plan of marking tuna in the process of being released into the open sea. The events to which it refers are fundamentally linked to: the necessity to carry releases of tuna caught (percentage Italy) during the 2013 fishing campaign and arranged by mutual agreement between the Maltese and Italian authorities; the presence of tuna confined in rearing cages; the availability of Fish and Fish Ltd. Farm in Malta to join the plan by providing what is necessary in terms of personnel and equipment; the concomitant prediction of the presence of OCEANIS Ltd s staff and observers, as the interested side for the Italian administration of the release stage; the pre-existing training and information activity of their observers, specifically referred to the tagging plans put in place by ICCAT, which OCEANIS Ltd. has carried out in the execution of the institutional assignment of the national program of observation for the 2013 fishing season of bluefin tuna; the working relationships wich are already in place between OCEANIS Ltd and COFREPECHE Inc and the availability of the latter to cooperate in operations with both a technical and financial support. 2
The company OCEANIS Ltd was officially authorized to carry out the experimental program of tagging by Dr. Antonio Di Natale, responsible for the ICCAT tagging program, receiving ST-DART2 numbered labels used in the tagging operations. There was a complete availability of the Italian and Maltese authorities to support the initiative with no extra charge for any of them if not for OCEANIS Ltd. which voluntarily, as already directly and officially involved, on behalf of the Ministero per le Politiche Agricole e Forestali, Direzione Generale della Pesca e dell Acquacoltura, for the realization of the national scientific-technical monitoring program for the 2013 fishing season of bluefin tuna, has provided economic resources, men and equipment. OCEANIS Ltd, with professionals afferent to society, consisting of scientific and technical personnel, and equipment, under the guidance and operational responsibility of Capt. Paolo Pignalosa and scientific responsibility of Dr. Giovanni, has developed a specific operational plan with the aim of tagging, shooting of the same with advanced systems for three-dimensional underwater and synchronized video recordings and the determination of the biometric data of tunas in the process of being released into the open sea. The tagging program has been implemented at the Fish and Fish Ltd Farm in Malta on tuna caught (percentage Italy) during the 2013 fishing campaign, and confined in rearing cages and for which the Italian and Maltese authorities had agreed on the release occured as a result of the excessive quantity of fishing. The farm has joined, charge free, the program by providing equipment and personnel and at the same time. 3
OPERATING UNIT AND ROLE Capt. Pignalosa Paolo: Operational Coordinator; Dr. Biologist Giovanni: Scientific Responsible and Tagging Executive; Dr. Jean Pier SILVA: Responsible for ICCAT Reg. Application; Mr. Forrester Carl: Photo-video elaboraion Technician; Mr. Desiderio Alfonso: Videoshooting Technician and Diver; Dr. Biologist Lombardo Francesco: Technical Assistant and Data Analyst. 4
PREPARATION ACTIVITY In the general planning phase procedures of insertion of tags in tuna provided by the ICCAT/GBYP Tagging Manual, have been taken into account. However, it was considered necessary, in the preparatory stages to the mission to Malta, to hypothesize and test different solutions for the tagging system, in order to came up with the optimal system, named SMAT (Tagging System for the Application of Tags). In the operational phase it has been experimentally verified that the procedures set required the application of certain changes to the suggested equipment, and the improvement of the shooting and underwater photo-video documentation methods with cinematographic techniques called "shot reverse shot". From the results obtained (tagging carried out successfully, no injured or dead individuals, no wasted tags, punctual filmed and photographic documentation of each tagging event), the solutions suggested proved to be necessary and successful. The tagging protocol used for the tag insertion operations is described below with indications of the equipment and skills used. Shown below are the photos of the sequential phases of design, development and testing which have allowed us to fine-tune the system and the related equipment used successfully in the tagging operations performed in farm in Malta. 5
EQUIPMENT USED AND PREPARATORY STEPS SMAT construction, hypothetical alternative solutions, special places for camcorders. 6
Experimentation and testing equipment, video recordings digital testing. Pneumatic speargun armed with SMAT system and equipped with a support and camcorders for tagging operator-view shooting. 7
Combined system of underwater camcorders for wide field shooting. 8
(editet CAD 3D by Arch. M.G. RUCCO) (editet CAD 2D by Arch. M.G. RUCCO) SMAT (Tagging System for the Application of Tags) developed by Oceanis Ltd, G., P. Pignalosa. 9
TAGGING ACTIVITY The mission began on September 13, 2013, departing by plane from Rome to Malta and afterwards transferring OCEANIS Ltd. equipment and personnel by boat to Fish and Fish Ltd. ( David and Xavier Azzopardi). Once at the facilities (35 49'47.21"N - 14 34'31.55"E), Dr., asks to dive into the cage where tuna that would be released were, to check their state and size towards the operations that would take place the following day. Tuna heterogeneous in size appeared calm (specimens weighing more than 250 kg were estimated, others weighted between 90 and 180 kg, others between 40 and 90 kg and some weighed less than 35 kg). A total of 317 fish were present in the cage. The tagging operations began on September 14, 2013, preceded by all the steps necessary for the preparation of the equipment that would be used. The group operates from 10.00 am, the blocking nets placing operations begin at 11:30 and end at 12:30 pm. The usable space available is reduced to little more than half the diameter of the cage (about 45 meters). The tuna can move freely by using a water column of about 28 meters. Two lifting balloons are placed in two points that lift the bottom of the net up to about 18 meters. At 12:40, after transferring the Oceanis group to the cage with another vessel, tagging operations begin in good weather and sea conditions, calm sea and clear water within the limits that allow adequate video-shootings. Two operators dive into the cage: Dr. with the task of tagging and shooting in narrow field and Mr. Desiderio, master operator for video recordings in wide field. Tuna appeared quiet and in good health. Choosing the spaghetti type (large version), the tagging material (big and short tips), checking rifle pressure, tunrning on the camera on the rifle (No. 2 GOPRO) and the operator's camera (No. 2 GOPRO, n. 1 professional camera) for environment shooting and synchronization and calibration of the cameras, are the main steps that precede the actual tagging which, considering only water operations, lasts less than 50 minutes. Being an experimental activity it was considered that once verified its feasibility and once obtained sufficient information there was no needed to go further. Moreover, 10
from Rosaria Tuna, main vessel and support to the Farm, we are asked to suspend tagging operations due to demands from the workers, considering it was a day before a holiday. For this reason operations are suspended permanently and we go back to land. The entire usable space of the cage is restored after removing the barrier net. September 15, 2013 Boarding on Rosaria Tuna and transfer back to the farm at 10:00, exploration in the tuna storage cage to check the overall health status and in particular for the observation of the four specimens labeled. No problem, no loss. Equipment control. Tagging operations starts at 11:00, which proceed without difficulty and after tagging 11 individuals more operations are put to an end at 13:30. 11
Table shows the main tagging data, with estimated individual weight of tagged tunas. Date Id Tag Estimated weight(*) (kg) Tagging operator 14/09/2013 BYP073001 80-90 Dr. 14/09/2013 BYP073002 80-90 Dr. 14/09/2013 BYP073003 130-140 Dr. 14/09/2013 BYP073004 150-160 Dr. Start-end time Applica tor type Photovideo shooting 12.50-13.02 SMAT yes 13.08-13.15 SMAT yes 13.20-13.26 SMAT yes 13.32-13.38 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073005 160-170 Dr. 11.01-11.16 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073006 200-210 Dr. 11.22-11.25 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073007 150-160 Dr. 11.27-11.30 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073008 200-210 Dr. 11.35-11.37 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073009 160-170 Dr. 11.41-11.43 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073010 140-150 Dr. 11.53-11.58 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073011 170-180 Dr. 12.03-12.06 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073012 120-130 Dr. 12.10-12.12 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 BYP073013 70-80 Dr. 12.15.12.18 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 073014 80-90 Dr. 12.23-12.27 SMAT yes 15/09/2013 073015 70-80 Dr. 12.30-12.35 SMAT yes (*) Value obtained through comparative analysis of: subjective observations of the operators involved who are all experts in these procedures assessments deducted from photo-video stereoscopic documentation. 12
Tag placed in the posterior-caudal portion. 13
Shown below are synchronized frames for the different camera angles during the course of the tagging operations. Approaching phase. 14
Pointing phase and identification of the subject that is going to be tagged 15
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Shot phase and tag insertion 17
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Identification of inserted tags 19
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September 16, 2013 Under the supervision of the Maltese and Italian authorities representatives the release in open water of tagged and untagged tuna was conducted. During these operations underwater video shootings were carried out. CONCLUSIONS All the steps that led to the achievement of the objectives, thanks to the tenacity and expertise of each component involved, have been brilliantly brought to accomplishment. The punctual insertion of the tag, thanks to the adjustable system SMAT, for every shot directed to the tuna, no animals hurt in vital parts, the tuna that had just been tagged go back to the group without problems, retention of the same tag and no loss 21
(important factor in the case that electronic tags are used), the ability to keep under observation for a certain amount of time the tagged animals before their release, the speed of operation, the relative low cost of the same, can be the main results achieved. The relatively small number of specimens that in this particular operation have been tagged, is not due to specific operational difficulties (in this regard we invite you to pay attention to the taggings table that shows the absolute execution times, deductible by the shootings), but was a precise operational choice of the scientific responsible who has given priority to operational precisness to define hypothesized protocols. Last but not least, please note that the entire mission was carried out with the voluntary assignment acceptance and a budget financially limited by Oceanis Ltd.'s resources and COFREPECHE inc.'s sponsorship. The purpose of this experiment was, in first place, to develop a series of techniques that could guarantee the formalization of established protocols which could ensure that, in the future, similar activities in similar circumstances could be carried out with an outcome certainty. We consider that this has been obtained. The Scientific directors Dr. Biologist Giovanni COZZOLINO OCEANIS Ltd. Chief Executive Officer and Operative Coordinator Capt. Paolo PIGNALOSA 22
ATTACHMENTS ICCAT Data Sheets 23
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