Management Briefs: An Accurate and Efficient Method for Reading Sequentially Coded Wire Tags Aided by a PC-Based Data Capture Program

Abstract

Sequentially coded wire tags (S-CWTs) provide a viable method for marking individuals and small groups of fish but are more difficult to read accurately than conventional coded wire tags. To improve efficiency and minimize reading errors, we developed a PC-based program for on-line data capture in the tag-reading laboratory. The program displays a blank template of a S-CWT, on which the reader uses a mouse to locate individual data bits as they appear on the tag under examination and calculates the tag code and sequence number. Use of this program reduced mean tag-reading time from 126 to 86 s/tag and the proportion of misidentified tags from 3.2% to 1.0%. We rejected 2.3% of S-CWTs as unreadable, primarily because the absence of a parity check on the binary codes representing the sequence number did not allow us to resolve codes rendered ambiguous by damage to the tag surface.