Occurrence, fate, and confounding influence of ghost passive integrated transponder tags in an intensively monitored watershed

Over the last three decades, passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags have been widely used to study fish populations. Interpretation of PIT tag detections, however, can be confounded by the presence of ghost tags, tags liberated when a fish dies. We used a combination of mobile antenna surveys, stationary antenna detections, and multistate mark–recapture modeling to assess the abundance and fate of ghost tags in a coastal California watershed. Accumulation of ghost tags from released hatchery-origin coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) smolts was substantial during California’s recent drought, with 2224 ghost tags identified during mobile reader surveys. Between surveys, PIT tags moved downstream a median distance of 346 m and a maximum distance of 1982 m. Stationary antenna array detections indicated that these movements occurred during high-flow events, concurrent with live fish movement. The multistate model estimated that, during winter, approximately 40% of tags were buried in the substrate beyond the read range of mobile readers. Failure to account for transport and burial dynamics of ghost tags can lead to biased estimates of fish abundance, survival, and movement.

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