EXPERIMENTAL TAGGING OF HERRING IN KANDALAKSHA BAY 



IN 1953-1954-^ 



A. P. Vilson 



"Tagging of fish is an excellent method that 

 should be accepted and applied to commercial 

 fish, but on one imperative condition: that the 

 method be applied en masse and a record be 

 kept." 



Averintsev, 1935. 



Tagging is the most effective method for studying the migrations of fish. This method en- 

 ables us to establish their migration paths as well as the speed of movement of individual speci- 

 mens in relation to their physiological state and factors of external environment. Under certain 

 conditions, tagging may enable us to estimate fishing intensity and growth rate of fish. 



Large-scale application of this method has already enabled us to establish the migration 

 paths of a number of commercially important fish, including cod, flounder, and salmon. 



For a long time, herring were not tagged, because the operation was thought to be rather 

 injurious and to harm the viability of these fish. 



The first experimental tagging of herring was done in 1892 by the Scotch researcher, 

 Fulton (3). The experiments proved unsuccessful. Fulton attempted to tag Atlantic herring by 

 cutting small openings in the caudal fin. In 1932, herring were tagged in Alaska by Rounsefell and 

 Dahlgren (4), who carried out a series of tagging experiments on the Pacific herring and thoroughly 

 studied the survival rate of tagged fish . Their tags were silk ribbons that passed through the gill 

 cover and caudal peduncle, metal tags attached to the gill cover and caudal peduncle, and small 

 metal plates that were introduced into the abdominal cavitj' of herring. 



The tests showed that tags in the caudal peduncle resulted in a high mortality of fish and an 

 insignificant tag return. The ribbons passed through the gill cover formed wounds that never heal- 

 ed, and the tags soon fell off. Stapled tags attached to the edge of the gill cover did not cause death, 

 but were easily lost. The survival rate of herring tagged with abdominal tags proved to be the 

 highest. With this method, the tag cannot get lost. In 1950 (5), sardines of the Gulf of Gascoyne 

 were tagged with celluloid tags made in the form of yellow plates 5 mm. x 25 mm. in size with a 

 fastening hook made of stainless steel wire 0.4 mm. in diameter. The tag weighed about 0. 10 gm. 

 It was attached to the back of the sardine between the occiput and dorsal fin by means of the pin. 



Wood (6) used similar tags for North Sea bank herring. 



Abdominal tags have been widely used in Norway and Iceland during recent years . Cellu- 

 loid capsules containing a label were used as control tags. The latter were attached by a wire to 

 the dorsal muscles anterior to the dorsal fin. 



In the early stages of Soviet research in the Norwegian and Greenland seas, tagging to study 

 1/ Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Translation Series No. 168. 



263 



