![Sample our Environment & Agriculture journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5934/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Environment-Agriculture.jpg"})
Abstract
We evaluated survivorship, tag retention, and growth of juvenile walleyes Stizostedion vitreum hand-tagged with binary-coded wire microtags (BCWMTs) or cold-branded with liquid nitrogen. A single BCWMT could be injected via the hand-tagging technique every 5–10 s and tagging with BCWMTs was superior to cold-branding. Fish with dorsally injected BCWMTs had significantly greater mean survival than the caudally injected group but not greater survival than the cold-branded group. There was no difference (P > 0.05) in survival among any of the three control groups. Microtags were retained equally well in dorsal and caudal locations, and significantly better than cold brands. Fish grew significantly in standard length during the 66-d evaluation period (P < 0.05) and increased (though not significantly) in wet weight. Treatment and control groups were not significantly different in attained size, suggesting no differential growth depression due to marking method or location.