Fish tagging is an excellent way to identify individual fish within your lake or pond. By tagging fish with a unique tag, fisheries biologists as well as pond owners can easily track the growth of individual fish when the fish are recaptured. Fish tagging is also used for population estimates via a mark and recapture study.
AES utilizes two types of tags. The first is a simple numbered tag that is an external tag. This base of the tag is simply inserted into the fish next to the dorsal fin and the tag is held in place by the dorsal spines. With some practice, anyone can insert these tags. Tagging your own fish is a great way to get your friends and family involved with the management of your fishery. Being an external tag, the tags can break off or become dislodged from the fish, though this is extremely rare if the tag was inserted correctly.
The second type of tag AES uses are called PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder) tags, similar to the “microchip” your dog gets from the vet. These are internal tags that are inserted inside the body cavity of the fish with a needle, giving each fish an individual identification number. PIT tags must be read with a handheld scanner. With the tags being an internal tag, loss of the tag is not an issue compared to external tags. One major benefit of a PIT tag is that antenna can be placed throughout a lake and when fish come within proximity of the antenna, the tag information is captured. This is a valuable tool for studying fish movement, habitat preference, etc. throughout the year.
