Preliminary mortality rates of marked king prawns Penaeus plebejus, in laboratory tanks

Abstract

Estimates of instantaneous mortality rates of marked king prawns, Penaeus plebejus, are made from laboratory experiments. Petersen disk tags cause a mortality in juveniles (20-30 mm carapace length) of the order of M_T = 0.11 week^-1 but no significant mortality in adults (35-50 mm carapace length). Floy anchor tags cause an initial mortality of 50% and an instantaneous mortality of M_T = 0.15 week^-1 in juveniles, and in adults there is an initial mortality of 25% but no further mortality. Pontamine blue stain injected into juveniles did not produce any significant mortality.