Albies: Connected From Cape Cod to Florida

ASGA firmly believes the story of the false albacore is still unwritten. Albies have a cult following throughout the Atlantic coast. They’re valuable for many key angling communities – more than some understand or are willing to acknowledge. That’s why we embarked on The Albie Project: a dynamic intersection of passionate anglers, cutting-edge science, and proactive fisheries management.  

If you’re new to the project and want a better understanding of the baseline from year one, head to our Albie Project Hub by clicking here. If you’ve been following along and supporting the project through engagement, tagging or purchasing custom ASGA Albie Gear, we have some extremely exciting news for you.

We heard some repetitive comments during our campaign to acknowledge the value of this species and establish baseline management for Little Tunny, mainly from the southern end of the coast:

“These fish are different from the ones you guys love up north.“

“They just go offshore from here. They are bluewater fish and shouldn’t be viewed through the lens of a connected nearshore species.”

We are now building a compelling case to refute these dismissive statements. A few days ago, we received word that multiple spaghetti-tagged albies that were tagged and released off Cape Cod, MA in Fall 2022 were recently recaptured off the coast of Jupiter, FL! The cherry on top: those tagged fish were recorded and released to swim another day. Let’s see if another lucky angler will get their hands on those same magic Tunnys with an unwavering resolve to travel thousands of miles and eat every bait in sight.

You can imagine how excited ASGA team members were as we called around to share the news. In collaboration with our genetics research with Cornell that pointed towards a connected stock, we now have recaptures on tagged fish on opposite ends of the Atlantic coast. Multiple recaptures across the vastness of the entire Atlantic Ocean within the first year and only 220 total traditional tags deployed is incredible. It would be hard to put a bigger smile on our faces in the first week of July than this news… 

Then the following day, we received a new email: this time from our friends at the New England Aquarium.

Remember those 57 successfully acoustic-tagged albies from our missions in Vineyard Sound last fall? It turns out they had a hankering for sunshine and Southern hospitality. While we are anxious to receive a full report on the data downloads from the receiver arrays along the coast, we can proudly announce that the data dump from the telemetry work had hits all the way to Florida!

Immediately our minds begin to race. We are going to lose a lot of sleep in the next few days. We have so many questions – and we will explore those questions in the coming weeks and keep you all in the loop as we do. All of these exciting data returns and updates come on the heels of a week in which we received some very concerning calls about activity in this fishery down south. We have merely scripted the first pages of the story of False Albacore, but already a compelling storyline is developing. We can’t wait to write this story together.

We recently launched a brand new Albie Project Cap in collaboration with the incredibly talented Johann Du Preez. These limited edition ASGA hats sport a surging albie chasing bait and the brand logo for the Association fighting to protect an underappreciated species. ASGA is currently preparing for its second season of acoustic tagging research in partnership with the New England Aquarium. All proceeds from Albie Project hat sales will go directly towards funding these research projects. Shop the new collection today by clicking here.