Saturday 14th November saw a group of keen volunteers heading out into Loch Etive in search of sharks. Onboard the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) research vessel Calanus were marine science students and staff from SAMS, Dr Jane Dodd (Scottish Natural Heritage) and David McNair, the Sport Scotland Sea Angling coach.
The event, organised by the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN), was held to catch and tag as many spurdog as possible, as part of Shark Tagathon2009.

Shark stocks in Scottish waters are severely threatened and scientific data are urgently needed to help establish an effective management plan for the regeneration of stocks.
The SSACN aims to promote interest in sea angling and conservation but also has an important scientific goal. Spurdog were once very common in Loch Etive and around the west of Scotland but their numbers have declined substantially.

The Tagathons take place right around the Scottish coastline and will provide valuable scientific data on fish growth rates and movements. As well as getting anglers involved in shark conservation, the aim of the Tagathon events is to substantially increase our biological knowledge of Scottish sharks to help with their conservation.
To help meet this need, SSACN runs two major tagging events each, which provide the foundation of the Scottish Shark Tagging programme and the means to gather that data.

Tagathon2009 is focussed on the stocks of spurdog and common skate in Lochs Sunart and Etive and surrounding waters.

More information on the SAMS Tagathon 2009 day out can be found here