Cost Comparison of Marks, Tags, and Mark-with-Tag Combinations Used in Salmonid Research

Abstract
Modern fishery management requires knowledge of fish survival and distribution that is best acquired by marking and subsequent recapture. To aid cost‐effective analysis for marking Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. and steelhead O. mykiss, 16 marks, 6 tags, and 3 mark–tag combinations were compared for application and decoding costs per fish. Application costs (1999 US$) ranged from negligible for thermal otolith marks to $6.50/fish for a combination of an adipose fin clip, a coded wire tag, and a passive integrated transponder tag. Decoding costs ranged from negligible for fin clips to $50.00/sample for strontium marked scales.

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