Effects of tag type, morphological location and tagger experience on tag retention rates in freshwater fishes
Jarod P. Lyon A C , Robin Hale B , Adrian Kitchingman A , Justin O’Connor A , Joanne Sharley A and Zeb Tonkin AA Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, 123 Brown Street, Heidelberg, Vic. 3084, Australia.
B School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic, 3010, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: jarod.lyon@delwp.vic.gov.au
Marine and Freshwater Research 70(6) 891-895 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF18368
Submitted: 21 September 2018 Accepted: 14 December 2018 Published: 1 February 2019
Abstract
Mark–recapture of fish is often used to inform fisheries or conservation management. Given that variability in tagging efficiencies can affect estimates of population size, it is important that rates of tag rejection are quantified. We double tagged over 45 000 large-bodied, long-lived fish in a turbid lowland river in south-eastern Australia. During yearly recapture fish surveys, data on tag rejection were collected. We found that the probability of tag rejection varied as a function of fish species, tag type and tagger experience. Floy tags were more likely to be rejected as dart tags in large-bodied golden perch Macquaria ambigua (6 and 3% respectively), silver perch (18 and 4% respectively) and trout cod (19 and 7% respectively), whereas rates of rejection in the large-bodied Murray cod Maccullochella peelii were similar for both tag types (12 and 10% respectively). More experienced taggers had lower rates of rejection, which varied between 1 and 48% for individual taggers. We trialled three morphological locations for passive integrated transponder (PIT) tagging of fish, with rejection rates lowest for tags implanted in the stomach cavity and highest for those implanted in the pectoral musculature. This study presents the first tag rejection rates for dart, floy and PIT tags for lowland Australian river fish, information that can help guide future monitoring programs.
Additional keywords: golden perch, Murray cod, rivers, tag rejection, tagging.
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