FiTREP Pre-Season Kickoff Meeting, March 2026

A group of people sitting, listening to a man give a presentation — FiTREP 2026 Pre-Season Kickoff Meeting at the JCNEER facility in Tuckerton, New Jersey

Our team recently hosted its third annual Fish Tagging Research and Education Program (FiTREP) kickoff meeting in preparation for the 2026 summer flounder season!

Our annual meeting was hosted at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNEER) and was attended by both the FiTREP science team and volunteer taggers from across New Jersey. Chase Wunder, graduate student in the Rutgers Ecology and Evolution Department, presented an overview of recent tag and recapture data, highlighting the over 1,700 tags that were deployed in 2025. Collectively, FiTREP has deployed over 4,300 tags since the program began in 2022. Joey O’Brien and Doug Zemeckis also reviewed best practices in both data management and tagging protocols.

Two pictures each showing a man give a presentation. — Chase Wunder (Left) and Joey O’Brien (Right) presenting to FiTREP volunteer taggers on the program results to date, and tagging best practices.

This upcoming season, we will have approximately 25 volunteer taggers spanning from Monmouth to Cape May County, so be on the look out for some tagged fish!

Thanks to our volunteer taggers for their continued effort and support, and taking their time to contribute understanding how summer flounder move through our Jersey waters. Looking forward to another season of tagging out on the water!

Three men looking at a green tag attached to a flatfish. — Dr. Douglas Zemeckis (Rutgers University) reviewing tagging locations with volunteer taggers Chuck and Frank.

For more information on FiTREP, and how you can participate, click here: Project Flyer