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. 2012 Mar 14;7(3):e31311. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031311

Table 2. Frequency (% within parentheses) of use of different tag types to study the life stages of anadromous salmonids in the marine environment for studies focusing on behaviour (i.e. those focusing on only behaviour and both on behaviour and survival).

Tag type
Life stage Acoustic Radio Data Logger PIT CWT External Biological Row Total
Out-migration (juveniles) 36 (54.5/60) 3 (13.6/5) 1 (8.3/1.7) 6 (66.7/10) 4 (21.1/6.7) 9 (18.8/15) 1 (25/1.7) 60 (NA/100)
Out-migratin (juveniles) to open ocean 2 (3/20) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) 8 (16.7/80) 0 (0/0) 10 (NA/100)
Out-migration (kelts) 4 (6.1/40) 0 (0/0) 2 (16.7/20) 1 (11.1/10) 0 (0/0) 3 (6.3/30) 0 (0/0) 10 (NA/100)
Return migration 16 (24.2/32) 17 (77.3/34) 3 (25/6) 0 (0/0) 1 (5.3/2) 13 (27.1/26) 0 (0/0) 50 (NA/100)
Open-ocean 3 (4.5/27.3) 0 (0/0) 2 (16.7/18.2) 0 (0/0) 4 (21.1/36.4) 1 (2.1/9.1) 1 (25/9.1) 11 (NA/100)
Open-ocean to return migration 1 (1.5/25) 0 (0/0) 3 (25/75) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) 4 (NA/100)
Entire life cycle (juvenile-return adult) 4 (6.1/11.4) 2 (9.1/5.7) 1 (8.3/2.9) 2 (22.2/5.7) 10 (52.6/28.6) 14 (29.2/40) 2 (50/5.7) 35 (NA/100)
Column Total 66 (100/NA) 22 (100/NA) 12 (100/NA) 9 (100/NA) 19 (100/NA) 48 (100/NA) 4 (100/NA) 180 (100/100)

The first % value within parentheses shows the relative frequency of use of a given tag type across life stages. The second % value shows the relative frequency of use of different tag types to study a particular life stage. The total frequency of tag use (n = 342) exceeds that of reviewed papers (n = 207) because many studies encompassed more than one life stage. The category “Biological” includes otoliths and scales, whereas the category “External” includes Carlin, cinch, Floy, Petersen disk tags and external markings.