128 



Fishery Bulletin 97(1), 1999 



nique for Pagriis auratus indicates that it is prob- 

 ably applicable to many other saltwater fish species, 

 and perhaps also to crustaceans and moUusks, but 

 experimental validation would be required for each 

 species. 



Conclusions 



The present study has demonstrated that the snap- 

 per Pagrus auratus can be reliably tagged by the in- 

 corporation of strontium into the dorsal spines. The 

 use of strontium as a chemical marker can allow large 

 numbers of small hatchery-bred fish to be tagged 

 before release into the wild. Importantly, fish do not 

 have to be sacrificed to assess whether they have been 

 tagged. Strontium in the spines of snapper persisted 

 for at least 36 days and there was no suggestion that 

 the chemical signal decayed over this time. It is rec- 

 ommended that juvenile snapper require immersion 

 in treatments of strontium chloride greater than 0.25 

 g/L (lOx ambient) for 4 to 5 days for the production 

 of reliable strontium marks in spines. Although natu- 

 ral levels of strontium in spines varied between some 

 locations along the central coast of New South Wales, 

 this variation was not great enough to obscure the 

 differences between tagged and wild fish. It was con- 

 cluded, therefore, that strontium immersion is a use- 

 ful and relatively environmentally safe method of 

 tagging large numbers of small snapper. 



Acknowledgments 



The authors would like to thank D. Ferrell from the 

 N.S.W. Fisheries Research Institute, P. Snitch from 

 the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, W. Talbot, J. Cleary 

 and P. Beevers from the Brackish Water Fish Cul- 

 ture Research Station, and S. Dove and B. Gillanders 

 from the University of Sydney. For constructive com- 

 ments on the manuscript we thank D. Pollard, S. 

 Dove, D. Ferrell, and B. Gillanders. Financial sup- 

 port was provided by the Australian Research Coun- 

 cil to MJK. 



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