Russian message from cod found nearly 35 years later

Children all over the world are often taken with the idea of launching a message in a bottle in the hopes of a response from afar. Imagine Ronje Berg’s excitement, then, when she found a Russian fish tag offering a reward.

The Norwegian schoolgirl, age 8 from Gjesv æ r Primary School, found the tag while on a recent school trip to the NW coast of Mager ø ya island, close to the North Cape in Norway. The tiny tag had instructions in Russian and English and clearly offered a reward to the finder.

In early October Ronje’s teacher contacted the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas), still known colloquially in Lowestoft as ‘the Fish Lab’. Scientists there were able to shed more light on the find. They also ensured that Ronje received her reward of £6, which Ronje duly spent on sweets to celebrate.

Scientists at the Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO) in Murmansk, Russia, originally attached the tag to a cod measuring 58 cm long. The fish was released on 6 October 1970 at a depth of 280 m. The Arctic Ocean location coordinates were 71 17 N, 17 48 E, or, more vaguely, 120 miles N/NW of Tromso or 130 miles due N of the Isle of Senja. Such precise information was recorded against the tag’s hand-written number (236501), which the Russians logged in data books.

Gary Burt, of Cefas, is responsible for collating data from modern fish tags. Nowadays many modern tags use sophisticated electronics to record all manner of data that helps scientists to build a picture of the life histories of fish. The world of marine science is fairly small, so Gary was able to contact Russian scientists who confirmed the details about the fish, which presumably has long-since been caught or died a natural death.

‘It’s fascinating to see such an old fish tag, and it’s in remarkable shape after all these years at sea,’ said Gary. ‘Clearly in this case we don’t know much about the fish, as it lost its tag somewhere along the way, but still it’s exciting to record the tag turning up.’

Cefas continue to tag a variety of fish species to find out more about fish biology and movements. Today, fishermen are encouraged to return the fish as well as the tag so that scientists can remove the ear-stones (otoliths), which help them to age the fish and learn more about their lives.

The reward for conventional tags such as the one Ronje found is £6, but electronic data storage tags command a higher reward of £25, with the potential of an additional £1,000 prize in the annual tag lottery. So, if you go down to the sea today, you might be sure of a big surprise!