Evaluation of Visible Implant Elastomer for Marking Juvenile Red Drum

• Main Authors: Amanda M. Bushon, Gregory W. Stunz, Megan M. Reese
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Red drum; Sciaenops ocellatus
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.490.8791; http://www.fisheries.tamucc.edu/publication_files/Bushon et al. 2007.pdf

Abstract.—Visible implant elastomer (VIE) was evaluated for marking juvenile red drum Sciaenops ocellatus in experimental studies. We tested VIE on hatchery-reared red drum (standard length, 29.6–38.7 mm; SE, 0.23) in a laboratory study to examine mortality, tag retention, and growth effects associated with the marking method. We examined two tagging locations and two control treatments in anesthetized and unanesthetized fish. Red drum were tagged below and parallel to the dorsal fin and above and parallel to the anal fin. Five fish were anesthetized, marked, and stocked into replicated tanks and held for 14 d. Tag retention was 100%, and overall mortality was 10%. The mortality of fish tagged below the dorsal fin was 0%, whereas that of fish tagged above the anal fin was 40 % (SE, 30.5). No significant difference in growth rates was observed between the marked