Workpackages

Physical tagging is a valuable technique to provide information about stock structure, migrations, behaviour, growth, mortality and abundance. The advantages of using physical marks are that they allow recognition of individuals as well as groups, can be recovered by either visual or non-visual methods, and offer many choices. Two systems are usually applied: external and internal tags, and have advantages and disadvantages. The first and the main step to develop a tagging program is the study of the viability of the tag application in the selected species. Experiences in artificial tanks provide useful information on the mortality rate and changes in behaviour due to artificial tagging. With its results Partner 03 (sub-coordinator for WP 05) will develop a preliminar experience limited to a selected area to confirm the viability of the method. The main goal is to have the methodology ready with one’s eyes fixed on horse mackerel future researchs. Furthermore, the limited tagging experience in the costs of Ireland could produce a valuable information to identify migration routes among the Western, Southern and North sea horse mackerel stocks in the North-east Atlantic.

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