Since 2010, the Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas - Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CICIMAR-IPN; La Paz, Mexico) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA; California, USA) have collaborated on a dolphinfish research program in the Eastern Pacific Ocean to study movement patterns and habitat use of this ecologically, economically, and culturally significant pelagic species. Fish were tagged in waters offshore of both mainland Oaxaca and Baja California. As of December 2024, 244 dolphinfish have been tagged during 13 summer and fall trips off Baja California, and 69 more during 10 winter trips off Oaxaca. Of that total, 153 pop-up archival (PAT) tags have been deployed, with durations ranging from 0 to 141 days (average: 33 days). Conventional tag recapture rate was 3% (n = 5 of 160), while electronic tags showed high rates of early release (n = 33) and non-reporting (n = 43). This large, long-term, novel dataset from 109 successful PAT deployments along with metadata from all 313 individual dolphinfish tagged is now publicly available via the Animal Tracking Network (ATN) and the DataONE Research Workspace.
Perle et al. (2026) studied this question.