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The Use of Electronic Tags in Fish Research–An Overview of Fish Telemetry Methods
Abstract and Figures
An overview of electronic tags that can be used in fish research is given, including radio and acoustic transmitters, data storage tags (DST, also termed archival tags), pop-up satellite archival tags (PSAT) and passive integrated transponder tags (PIT-tag). Fish telemetry is a term used to describe the application of these methods. Typically, an electronic tag is attached to a free-swimming fish, and information on position, movements and/or measurements of environmental and physiological parameters can be recorded wirelessly by use of a mobile receiver or stationary loggers. For most methods, the fish need not to be recaptured to achieve data. However, DSTs record and store information on environmental and/or physiological parameters in the tag, and therefore need to be retrieved for downloading data. In the case of PSATs, stored data is transferred to satellites when the tag loosens from the fish and pops up to the surface, and in addition, the pop up position is recorded. The developments of telemetry methods have provided opportunities to reveal previously unknown information on fish behavior, habitat use and migrations in fresh water, estuaries, near-coastal areas and oceans, especially since extensive long-term data can be collected repeatedly from individual fish. Detailed information on fish behaviour and migrations is needed to better understand, protect and manage fishes in freshwater and marine systems. The development of successful management measures depends on knowledge of where fish reside and migrate during the day, season and year. There has been a tremendous increase in the use of electronic tagging methods, especially during the last 10-20 years. In addition to descriptive and ecological studies, the methods have been used to assess effects of for instance hydropower production, other river regulations, migration barriers, protected areas, fishing regulations, catch-and-release angling, hatchery-rearing, fish aggregating devices (FADs), water pollution and aquaculture. The main methods for attaching electronic tags to fish are 1) surgical implantation in the body cavity, 2) external attachment, and 3) gastric insertion via the mouth. Potential negative handling effects are inflammations, infections, tag expulsion, altered behavior, decreased swimming performance, reduced feeding, reduced growth and increased mortality. The catch, handling and tagging procedures should have minimal effects on the fish. If not, an anomalous behaviour caused by the tagging may be recorded instead of the natural behaviour, and the study is a failure from a scientific point of view. Furthermore, optimal anaesthetic and tagging methods are required to meet the ethical standards for use of experimental animals, and to ensure fish survival and welfare.
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... Acoustic transmitters have been used in fisheries management to study behavior, survival and migration patterns of numerous fish species [1][2][3][4][5][6]. For acoustic transmitter data to be accurate and reliable, post-tagging behavior, physiology, growth and immune function of acoustically tagged fish must be similar to untagged fish [7][8][9]. ...
Micro-acoustic transmitters are becoming increasingly popular in fisheries management. This study examined the short-term effects of micro-transmitter surgical insertion on juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (mean (SE) initial weight=23.9 (1.8) g, length=124 (2) mm). One group of trout were anesthetized and surgically implanted with micro-acoustic transmitters (tag-to-body ratio=2.94 (0.07) %). A second control group only underwent anesthesia. Ten fish from each group were placed in one of five experimental tanks for eight weeks, with weight, length, hematocrit, hepatosomatic index, viscerosomatic index and splenosomatic index data collected weekly. Survival in the untagged control group was 100%, which was significantly greater than 91.8% in the tagged group. Tag retention was 71%. Total lengths and weights were significantly less for the first six weeks after surgery in tagged fish compared to the control fish. Hematocrit was significantly lower and splenosomatic index was significantly higher in the tagged trout for the first three weeks. Hepatosomatic index and viscerosomatic index were not significantly different between the groups throughout the study. This study provides additional documentation of the potential negative effects of micro-acoustic tag implantation on juvenile rainbow trout. A minimum three-week recovery period is recommended for juvenile fish tagged at a 2.9% tag-to-body ratio.
... Cormack-Jolly-Seber model estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for monthly survival (φ) and detection probability (p) of lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) acoustically tagged in the Fox River, Wisconsin, for the top two models based on Quasi-Akaike information criterion corrected for low sample size (QAICc) scores (see Table 2 for further information on model selection in the tank were low (< 12 fish at a time). While crowding and holding during aquaculture-related activities has been shown to increase stress in fishes [45], and surgical best practices for telemetry studies note the importance of reducing stress during capture and handling [6,46], studies focusing on telemetry that specifically aim to disentangle the impact of pre-surgical capture and handling and the tagging procedure itself are lacking [47,48]. Future research that focuses on investigating and improving appropriate handling methods for fish species before and after tagging surgery may be beneficial to improving survival, and therefore inferences that can be drawn from acoustic telemetry projects. ...
Background
The number of telemetry studies focused on lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) in the Laurentian Great Lakes has steadily increased over the last decade, but field tests of immobilization methods used for tag implantation, which have the potential to affect survival and behavior of fish after release, are lacking. We compared post-tagging survival and behavior of lake whitefish that were immobilized for tag implantation using electroimmobilization via a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) unit or by chemical immobilization via exposure to 10% eugenol.
Results
Acoustic tags were implanted into 126 adult lake whitefish (N = 126; N = 67 TENS treatment group, N = 59 eugenol treatment group) collected from the Fox River, Wisconsin, during the spawning period in November 2021. We found no significant differences between treatments in the number of days that lake whitefish spent in the Fox River following tagging (TENS mean = 13.4 days, eugenol mean = 14.7), and also found that the proportions of fish within each treatment group that returned to the Fox River during fall 2022 (51% from TENS treatment group, 49% from eugenol treatment group) did not differ from the proportions for all fish that were confirmed to be alive at that time. The best Cormack–Jolly–Seber model indicated no differences in survival between the two treatment groups (monthly survival = 0.980, 95% CI 0.970–0.987). Fish immobilized using TENS underwent almost immediate induction and recovery from surgeries, while fish immobilized using eugenol had induction times that ranged 167–487 s (mean = 347 s) and recovery times that ranged 51–2358 s (mean = 1242 s).
Conclusions
Short- and long-term behavior (time to exit of Fox River, return to Fox River in the next spawning season) and monthly survival estimates of lake whitefish did not differ between the immobilization treatments. Either method may be suitable for immobilization during tag implantation, but the additional time needed for induction and recovery of fish when using eugenol may be a limiting factor in some field-based tagging situations.
... Telemetry (tagging) studies provide valuable information on the early migratory movements of salmon (e.g. Økland et al. 2006, Thorstad et al. 2013, Barry et al. 2020, Newton et al. 2021, Lilly et al. 2022,2023, Rodger et al. 2024 or on the later movements of returning adult salmon (e.g. Kennedy et al. 2023 ), but due to limitations on the various telemetric methods, this approach has not yet revealed a full marine migration pathway in Atlantic salmon post-smolts. ...
Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations have suffered declines across their range in recent decades, largely attributed to decreasing marine survival rates. The first few months at sea are thought to be a time of particular vulnerability, but investigation into drivers of survival is limited by a lack of knowledge of migratory paths. Here, we model the early marine migration of Atlantic salmon from Scottish and Irish rivers over 27 years. Movement is simulated over the first 3 months at sea using a Lagrangian particle tracking model (FVCOM i-state configuration model) coupled with an active swimming model that is dependent on ocean currents, salinity, and compass direction. Our model is driven by the reanalysis of a high-resolution ocean model (Scottish Shelf Waters Reanalysis Service). Differences in the speed of migrations, the proportion of time spent in different oceanographic regions, and the proportion of migrations reaching the Norwegian Sea are seen between years. These differences are related to changes in local ocean conditions: years with lower on-shelf salinity, stronger on-shelf northwest currents, and stronger shelf-edge currents were associated with greater migration success. Within years, differences in modelled migrations between rivers were best explained by their minimum distance from the continental shelf edge.
... Recent advances in telemetry technology have made it possible to investigate migratory behaviours of species both temporally and spatially (Doherty et al. 2017; Thorup et al. 2023). This has enabled a better understanding of the exogenous factors directly influencing migration mortality (Thorstad et al. 2013;Hays et al. 2003;Palacín et al. 2017;Weinz et al. 2020). Organisms require a suite of specific morphological, physiological and behavioural adaptive features to successfully complete a migratory cycle (Justen and Delmore 2022). ...
Migratory species typically undertake demanding long‐distance journeys, across different habitat types during which they are exposed to multiple natural and anthropogenic stressors. Mortality during migration is typically high and may be human induced. Understanding individual responses to these selection pressures is rarely attempted because of the challenges of relating individual phenotypic and genetic data to migration success. Here, we show distinct single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sets significantly differentiated between Atlantic salmon smolts making successful migrations to sea and those that failed to migrate, in two different rivers. In contrast, morphological variation was not diagnostic of migration success. Populations from each river were genetically distinct, and while different genes were possibly implicated in migration success in each river, they related to common biological processes (e.g., osmoregulation and immune and stress response). Given that migration failure should quickly purge polymorphism at selected SNPs from a population, the question of how genetic diversity in these populations is maintained is an important one. Standing genetic variation could be maintained by different life history strategies and/or environmentally driven balancing selection. Our work highlights the importance of preserving genetic diversity to ensure evolutionary resilience at the population level and has practical implications for management.
... Tagging fish allows researchers to identify unique individuals, monitor populations, and observe movement patterns. Passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags have the advantages of being small, not requiring a battery, having a large number of unique codes to distinguish individuals, and lasting several decades (Thorstad et al. 2013). These advantages have led to the tagging of millions of fish, nearly 57 million in the Columbia River basin, USA (Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission 2024) alone. ...
Objective
Handling and tagging migrating fish might alter their behavior, limiting inference from mark–recapture studies. Posthandling flight of tributary spawning Flannelmouth Sucker Catostomus latipinnis was previously identified in Coal Creek in the upper Colorado River basin. Our objective was to determine if similar issues were present at McElmo Creek in the San Juan River basin.
Methods
We compared emigration timing of Flannelmouth Sucker that had been handled and tagged with passive integrated transponder tags during their tributary spawning run to individuals tagged in previous years and detected both entering and exiting the tributary. Linear mixed‐effects models were used to examine intrinsic and extrinsic factors contributing to exit timing.
Result
Sex and tagging year were associated with emigration timing, but handling did not result in posthandling flight from McElmo Creek. Females exited the tributary ~3 days before males, and larger fish emigrated earlier than smaller adults.
Conclusion
Differences in capture technique and timing, available spawning habitat, and fish motivation across river systems may contribute to differences in posthandling emigration of tributary spawning Flannelmouth Sucker.
... Recent developments in tracking technologies have provided tools to significantly advance research in fish ecology using fish telemetry methods (Brownscombe et al., 2019Cooke et al., 2013;Lucas & Baras, 2000;Thorstad et al., 2013). In particular, the use of acoustic transmitters with integrated sensors (e.g., depth and temperature sensors), has enabled researchers to examine both vertical and horizontal fish movements and how temperature might influence these movements. ...
Atlantic salmon Salmo salar typically enter fresh water several months prior to spawning and just as pools can provide areas of refuge in river systems, lakes may also provide important refuge habitat during the spawning migration. Using acoustic telemetry we examined the spatial and temporal movements of wild and a ranched strain of Atlantic salmon in a freshwater lake where the main spawning areas were located upstream of the lake. Over the study period (2011–2014), returning adult wild salmon spent an average of 228 days in fresh water and 90% of that time in the lake. On entering the lake, most wild salmon moved quickly to the northern part of the lake, close to the main inflow, spending an average 76% of the time in this location. The average number of days wild fish were absent from the lake during the main spawning period varied between years, ranging from 10 to 26 days for females and 32 to 35 days for males. Seventy four per cent (17/23) of salmon spawners returned to the lake and two salmon subsequently died in the lake post‐spawning. Atypically, two salmon were resident in the lake for the whole period in 2013/14. During the study, wild salmon were detected at depths within the top 5 m for 73% of the time. Median depths post‐spawning were greater than in the pre‐spawning period, when salmon were found to spend extensive periods at depths in excess of 10 m. In July 2013, when the lake was stratified, thermal regulation behaviour was observed in wild salmon, whereby salmon moved to cooler deeper water when water temperatures at 1 m exceeded 20°C. In contrast to wild salmon, the majority of ranch salmon returned to the traps downstream of the lake prior to the spawning period, which would be expected as they were released as smolts below the freshwater lake. Ranch fish spent an average 80% of the time in the vicinity of receivers in the south of the lake and an average 98% of the time within the top 5 m. However, two ranch females were resident in the lake until the following spring and one ranch female moved upstream into the river during the spawning period. Clearly, in this catchment the lake provides an important habitat for migrating adult salmon. In the context of climate change, where thermal and hydrological regimes in rivers are expected to change in response to changes in air temperature and precipitation patterns, the availability of deep lakes that stratify in the summer and cool water refuges in river systems is likely to play a key role in the sustenance and conservation of salmonid species. Information about the migration patterns of Atlantic salmon in undisturbed freshwater systems may also assist in resolving issues associated with fish passage in impacted rivers and inform management decisions.
... However, uncertainties persist regarding the distribution and migration patterns of fish Silva et al. 2018). The distribution of fish within a river system is influenced by various physical indices, including the river's geometry, hydrodynamic conditions and temperature (Alhulaifi, Buck, and Arbegast 2012;Thorstad et al. 2013;Williams et al. 2012;W. Zhang et al. 2016). ...
Much effort has been devoted to predicting fish migration routes to assist target species migration, and yet, fish migration science and practice remain imperfect. This study aimed to predict the migration paths of Gymnocypris przewalskii at the river confluence in the Qinghai Lake basin. The authors proposed an approach for fish migration route prediction, which involves a hydrodynamic module, a habitat model and a fish migration module. The TELEMAC-MASCARET system was used to simulate hydrodynamic conditions and statistical analyses were carried out. During the flood season, G. przewalskii migrates downstream, whereas during the migratory season, they migrate upstream. The results indicate that flow velocity was the most significant hydrodynamic parameter affecting fish migration behaviour. The optimal flow velocity range for the target fish species was between 0.7 and 1.7 m/s. The impact of water depth was only observed in low discharge situations. Besides, the temperature plays a vital role in determining fish migration and abundance. However, the results reveal that in the morning hours, the temperature exhibits a range of 10°C to 16°C, and in the noon, the average temperature ranges from 16°C to 19°C, with a maximum temperature reaching 23°C. These temperature variations enable fish to migrate towards the tributary offering a more favourable water temperature during route selection at a river confluence. The study concludes that future research should consider incorporating the swimming capacity of the focal fish species to provide insights into fish migration patterns.
... Telemetry techniques are widely used to study the movement and behavior of individual animals. The methodology is, however, limited by the size of the animal in relation to the size of the electronic tags [1,2]. For small animals, Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT tags; 7-32 mm) are commonly used. ...
Telemetry techniques are important tools in freshwater fish ecology but are limited by the size of the fish in relation to the size of the electronic tags. The emergence of very small PIT tags (8 mm, mini PIT tags) opens the door to study the individual movement and behavior of small-sized fish species and life stages previously outside the scope of fish telemetry. Although high survival from mini PIT tags have been shown in some groups of fish, suitability assessments are lacking for many taxa, and potential behavioral effects have rarely been evaluated. Here, we evaluate the survival tagging effects in small-sized (35-76 mm) Padanian goby (Padogobius bonelli) implanted with mini PIT tags. PIT-tagging was associated with high survival and tag retention in the tagged fish. No effects of PIT-tagging on volitional swimming activity nor on maximum swimming speed were found. Similar results were obtained implanting larger tags (12 mm) in gobies down to 50 mm in length. Our results indicate that PIT telemetry-using mini PIT tags-is applicable for the study of behavior and movement in small-sized gobies.
... We posit that combined sibship-abundance estimation datasets could further advance empirical support for predictive metapopulation models because the methodology has different strengths and constraints compared to methods using individual tagging and telemetry methods. Individual tagging and telemetry methods provide a wide range of approaches for quantifying movement and survival (Lucas and Baras 2000;Pine et al. 2003;Thorstad et al. 2013) and international collaborations (Iverson et al. 2018) and innovations in technoscience (Cooke et al. 2022) are continuously advancing the potential of these methods. However, making inferences from tagged individuals requires careful management of tagging and handling effects. ...
Quantifying recruitment at the sibling group offers a powerful methodology for understanding density-dependent and environmental drivers of recruitment. We propose a modeling framework that combines sibship and abundance estimation datasets to estimate mean sibling group size, sibling group size process error, environmental and density-dependent effects on sibling group size, dispersal, and mortality rate. Geographic states in the model consist of discrete habitat patches connected via dispersal. Simulations were used to investigate the influence of sampling processes and sibling group size on parameter estimation within our modeling framework. Mean sibling-group size, environmental effects on recruitment, and dispersal rate among habitat patches were estimated with high accuracy under a wide range of sampling conditions, including imprecise out-of-model estimates of capture probability and subsampling both within and among habitat patches. Density-dependent effects on recruitment and process error tended to be estimated with lower accuracy, though accuracy improved as sibling group size or sampling intensity increased. The main contribution of this research is a flexible quantitative modeling framework for parameterizing mechanistic models of recruitment dynamics with empirical sibship data.
The search for effective strategies to prevent and mitigate accidental releases of aquaculture fishes is on-going. To test a new recapture strategy and evaluate the individual dispersal behaviour of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. at the northern limit of its range, 39 adult salmon (mean +/- SD fork length and weight: 85.5 +/- 5.0 cm and 7.4 +/- 1.4 kg, respectively) were implanted with depth-sensing acoustic tags and released in a north Norwegian fjord during the spring of 2007. The fish were released from 2 aquaculture sites in the Altafjord system and tracked using both mobile and fixed receivers. The coastal marine bag-net fishery, in combination with in-river angling, was tested as a potential recapture strategy. Immediately following the simulated escape event, the fish dove to near-bottom depths, subsequently returning to surface levels within the following days. The fish dispersed rapidly (9.5 +/- 19.2 km d(-1)), traveling outward to coastal waters along the edges of the fjord. The bag-net fishers and anglers recaptured 79% of the escaped fish within 1 mo post-release, 90% of which were from bag nets. While most of the fish left the fjord, 7 tagged fish (18%) entered the Alta River estuary (3 of which later migrated up the Alta River), and 1 returned to the Altafjord the following year, presumably to spawn. The results showed that recapture efforts need to be immediate and widespread to mitigate farm-escape events. Coastal bag nets were effective at recapturing escaped farmed salmon, compared to previously tested methods, and would be especially useful in areas where gill-netting is not permitted.
Telemetric and molecular techniques are powerful tools for investigating patterns of species dispersal, habitat use, and reproductive behavior. Yet, these methods are rarely combined when studying spatial structures of migrating animals. This study combines migration data with genetic assignment tests of radio-tagged sea trout, Salmo trutta L., in two Swedish rivers. We investigate how the genetic information enhances the interpretation of the telemetry data. Individual gene frequencies of tagged fish are assigned to baseline samples of brown trout collected in tributaries and the main stems. The genetic assignment tests confirm that individuals returned from the sea to their natal stream, but also suggest that some individuals migrated to other than their native habitat. In total, 82% (R. Pitealven) and 37% (R. Vindelalven) of fish that were successfully assigned to a sample in a baseline migrated to an area in the vicinity of the sample location. The difference between rivers is likely due to low genetic differentiation among baseline samples and effects of stocking of fish in the R. Vindelalven. Combining the two techniques enhances understanding of migration behavior, important for conservation and management.
While data storage tags typically provide information about depth and temperature, the horizontal position of fish is difficult to obtain. The objective of this study is therefore to introduce a method for reconstructing horizontal migration patterns of fish tagged with DSTs. The method works by: establishing a database on bathymetry and environmental information about the target area, moving a large number of virtual fish between the release and recapture positions using a biased random walk procedure, and then terminate trajectories where the information at position is in disagreement with the tag information. For example a trajectory is terminated if the tag depth is greater than the bottom depth. The method is exemplified with two tag recordings from Northeast Arctic cod (Gadus morhua L.) in the Barents Sea. The results show that termination of impossible trajectories limits the number of potential trajectories between release and recapture positions, and in particular the usage of multiple termination criteria (depth and temperature) proved to be effective in reducing the number of possible trajectories. The method is general, simple to use, and can also be used in combination with geolocation methods.
A fish aggregating device (FAD) called a payao is conventionally installed to catch pelagic species in the Philippines. The waters around the Philippines are important regions for yellowfin tuna stocks because they include spawning grounds and nurseries. To understand the schooling behavior of juvenile yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares around a payao, 13 juveniles (20.5-24.0 cm fork length) double tagged with ultrasonic transmitters (V7-2L-R256; Vemco Ltd.) and data loggers (DST-micro; Star-Oddi Ltd.) were released around a payao. A self-recording receiver (VR2-DEL; Vemco Ltd.) was attached on the mooring rope of the payao to follow the horizontal movements and data loggers recorded the vertical movements of tagged juveniles. Nine juveniles were recaptured simultaneously by ring net at the same payao after 4-7 days. One juvenile was recaptured by hand line at another payao 12 km away from the tagging site after 6 days. Recaptured juveniles showed a diurnal schooling pattern suggesting different school shape and foraging strategy between daytime and nighttime. Juveniles showed a diurnal horizontal moving pattern, concentrated near the payao during daytime, while they were distributed around the payao at nighttime. The fluctuations of swimming depth were synchronized among fish. Juveniles also showed a diurnal vertical movement pattern in surface mixed layer. They concentrated in a shallow and narrow range (11.2 +/- 8.2 m, mean +/- SD) at nighttime, while they were distributed to a deep and wide range (20.0 +/- 11.8 m) during daytime. The maximum vertical neighbor distance indicated the vertical thickness of the school and showed a peak around noon. Higher vertical movement speed during daytime indicated vertical foraging in a water column, while at nighttime the juveniles might forage horizontally following the diurnal migration patterns of prey in the surface layer.