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Trade-offs in experimental designs for estimating post-release mortality in containment studies

Fisheries Research
Andrew B. Barbour; Kyle L. Wilson
By: , , and 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2013.10.020

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Abstract

Estimates of post-release mortality (PRM) facilitate accounting for unintended deaths from fishery activities and contribute to development of fishery regulations and harvest quotas. The most popular method for estimating PRM employs containers for comparing control and treatment fish, yet guidance for experimental design of PRM studies with containers is lacking. We used simulations to evaluate trade-offs in the number of containers (replicates) employed versus the number of fish-per container when estimating tagging mortality. We also investigated effects of control fish survival and how among container variation in survival affects the ability to detect additive mortality. Simulations revealed that high experimental effort was required when: (1) additive treatment mortality was small, (2) control fish mortality was non-negligible, and (3) among container variability in control fish mortality exceeded 10% of the mean. We provided programming code to allow investigators to compare alternative designs for their individual scenarios and expose trade-offs among experimental design options. Results from our simulations and simulation code will help investigators develop efficient PRM experimental designs for precise mortality assessment.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Trade-offs in experimental designs for estimating post-release mortality in containment studies
Series title Fisheries Research
DOI 10.1016/j.fishres.2013.10.020
Volume 151
Year Published 2014
Language English
Publisher Elsevier
Publisher location Amsterdam
Contributing office(s) Great Lakes Science Center
Description 6 p.
First page 130
Last page 135
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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