Posthandling Survival and PIT Tag Retention by Alewives—A Comparison of Gastric and Surgical Implants

Abstract

We compared survival and tag retention of Alewives Alosa pseudoharengus tagged with PIT tags, using intraperitoneal (IP) surgical implants, gastric implants (GI), and untagged controls held for 38 d. Retention was 100% for IP-tagged Alewives and 98% for GI-tagged implants. No significant difference in survival was observed among any of these groups. These results lend support to the use of PIT telemetry for studying fish passage and migration of anadromous herring. Both methods hold promise for improving estimates of freshwater survival of adult anadromous clupeids; further research should make it also possible to refine estimates of adult marine survival.

Received February 4, 2013; accepted May 29, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Philips Brady, Edward Clark, and Luis Carmo of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and Amy Teffer of the University of Massachusetts Amherst provided essential support throughout this study. Shortly after conducting the work described in this paper, Volney Vono was diagnosed with brain cancer, from which he died in 2011. Vono was a committed conservationist and scientist whose gentle integrity is missed by all who knew him. This paper is dedicated to his memory.

Notes

^*Deceased.