pouting; acoustic telemetry; dummy transmitter; survival rate</td

Degraer, S.

Delbare, D.

Reubens, J.T.

Vincx, M.

Open Marine Archive

Belg. J. Zool., 142 (2) : 130-132 July 2012
The effect of insertion of a dummy acoustic transmitter 
on the survival of pouting, Trisopterus luscus L. 
 Jan Tom Reubens1*, Daan Delbare2,  Steven Degraer3,1, Magda Vincx1
1  Ghent University, Department of Biology, Marine Biology Research Group, Krijgslaan 281 S8, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
2  Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Animal Science Unit, Ankerstraat 1, 8400 Oostende, Belgium. 
3  Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM), Marine 
Ecosystem Management Unit, Gulledelle 100, 1000 Brussels, Belgium.
* Corresponding author: Jan.Reubens@UGent.be
KEY WORDS: pouting, acoustic telemetry, dummy 
transmitter, survival rate.
Acoustic fish telemetry is an often used 
technology that can provide valuable data on fish 
movement, behaviour and habitat use. In recent 
years, many novel applications and ameliorated 
transmitter designs have made it an increasingly 
popular tool in fisheries research (1-4), resulting 
in substantially improved knowledge on 
behavioural, ecological and physical issues (5-
9) of many fish species in previously out-of-
reach environments. Heupel et al. (1) stated 
“any aquatic species to which a transmitter can 
be attached or implanted without modifying the 
behaviour of the animal is potentially suited to 
this technology”. The size of the transmitter and 
the disturbance to a fish should be minimized in 
order to study the fish behaviour (10).
Monitoring of fish communities in wind farms 
in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) 
revealed that pouting, Trisopterus luscus 
(linnaeus, 1758), was present in high densities 
in the vicinity of the wind turbines during parts of 
the year. There is evidence that food availability 
for pouting increased at these wind turbines (11). 
To study the spatio-temporal migration and site 
fidelity of pouting at the offshore wind farms, we 
plan to use acoustic telemetry. However, pouting 
is a very sensitive species which survives 
manipulations only in very low percentages 
(pers. observations). As knowledge of survival 
rates is indispensable to an assessment of the 
likelihood of success of a tagging experiment, a 
laboratory experiment was set up to investigate 
the potential for pouting to be used in acoustic 
telemetry studies. To our knowledge, this is the 
first experimental study in acoustic telemetry on 
pouting and the information obtained could be 
valuable for future applications. 
The pouting individuals used in the experiment 
were collected at a wind farm in the BPNS, 
using hook and line gear. After capture, fish were 
kept in an aerated water tank for transportation 
to aquarium facilities (water temperature of 
14°C) at the Institute for Agricultural and 
Fisheries Research. After an acclimatisation 
period of five to seven days, the fish were 
starved for two days (12) before the surgical 
operation, in order to maximize the intestinal 
space for tag insertion. Surgical procedures 
were similar to those of Baras & Jeandrain 
(13), arendt et al. (14) and Jadot et al. (15). 
Prior to tagging, the fish were anaesthetized in a 
0.3ml l-1 2-phenoxyethanol solution. Following 
anaesthesia, the fish, showing no reaction to 
external stimuli, slow opercular rate and loss of 
equilibrium (16), were placed ventral side up in 
a V-shaped support. Most of the body, except the 
ventral side, stayed in the water and a continuous 
flow of aerated water was pumped over the gills 
to avoid gill damage and to provide a continuous 
oxygen supply (17). A small incision (15-22 
mm) was made on the mid-ventral line and a 
dummy acoustic transmitter (Vemco, coded, 
V9-1L) was inserted in the visceral cavity. The 
incision was closed with two sutures (polyamide 
131Survival of pouting from acoustic tagging
monofilament, DS19 3/0). All instruments and 
transmitters used were disinfected with iso-
betadine®. In total 15 specimens were tagged 
with a dummy transmitter. The 10 specimens of 
the control group were anaesthetised to mimic 
the handling procedure. 
After the surgical procedures all pouting were 
stocked together in a fish tank (2 x 2 x 0.5m³) 
on recirculation (i.e. a closed system in which 
no extra water is added). The tank was checked 
daily for survival and tag retention. Pouting were 
fed with fish fillets. The experiment ran for six 
weeks.
Fish survival rates were compared using chi-
square tests. A Two-way contingency table was 
constructed for survival (dead-alive)/treatment 
(tag-control) comparison. Statistical analysis 
was performed in R (version 2.5.1 www.r-
project.org). T-tests on the difference in total 
length of pouting between the treatments were 
carried out in Statistica (version 7.0, Statsoft, 
Tulsa, Oklahoma). A significance level of 
p < 0.05 was used in the tests and results expres-
sed as mean ± SD.
The fish length varied between 14.5 cm and 
27.5 cm, and between 17.3 cm and 28.5 cm for 
the tagged and control group respectively. No 
significant differences in length were present 
between the groups (T-test, p = 0.49). In the 
first week after surgery a significant difference 
in survival rate (χ²-test, p = 0.041) was detected 
between the tagged group (survival: 66.7 %) 
and the control group (survival: 100 %). Data 
screening showed that there was a tendency to 
better survival in larger fish within the tagged 
group. The fish that died had an average length 
of 20.5 ± 3.5 cm, while the fish that survived had 
an average length of 23.2 ± 4.2 cm. However, 
no significant differences in length were present 
between the groups (T-test, p = 0.24). From 
the second week onwards there was no further 
mortality in either group. However, one tagged 
fish expelled its dummy transmitter in the third 
week. During the whole period of the experiment 
all fish ate well and a small increase in length was 
observed. In the tagged group, overall average 
length increased from 22.8 ± 4.3 cm to 23.2 ± 
4.2 cm, while in the control group it increased 
from 23.0 ± 4.2 cm to 23.2 ± 3.9 cm. Individual 
length increment was not monitored as several 
individuals lost their external identification tag 
during the experiment. Only fish that survived 
the experiment were used to calculate average 
lengths. The experiment took place in the run-
up to the spawning season and post-mortem 
investigation revealed that some specimens had 
maturing gonads. 
Although the experiment was small-scale 
(due to the limited number of pouting that could 
be caught), some clear trends were revealed. 
Tagged individuals had a significantly lower 
survival probability compared with non-tagged 
individuals. The results suggest that survival may 
be influenced by length. Larger animals tended 
to have higher survival chances, compared with 
smaller specimens. The experiment clearly 
showed that if tagged animals died, it was 
within the first week after surgical procedures. 
Therefore, we suggest that pouting does have the 
potential to be used in telemetry experiments. 
However, as survival is indispensable to the 
maximum likelihood of success of a tagging 
experiment, only animals in good condition 
should be released. Therefore, fish should be 
monitored for an observation period of one week 
after surgical procedures to allow them to recover 
from stressors (18). In addition, specimens above 
a minimum length should be used. We suggest 
this minimum to be at least 23 cm, which is the 
average length of the tagged fish that survived. 
All pouting in captivity ate well, increased 
slightly in length and their gonads matured, so 
it appeared that tagging did not influence their 
growth and feeding behaviour. 
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Received: January 25th, 2012
Accepted: June 5th, 2012
Branch editor: De Troch Marleen


The effect of insertion of a dummy acoustic transmitter on the survival of pouting, <i>Trisopterus luscus</i> L.

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