Miscounted Fish May Be Skewing Population Sizes

When scientists affix tracking tags to fish and release them into the ocean, they expect that some will live, some will die, and some will go on to be caught another day. The number of tagged fish researchers catch on repeated surveys provides a way to gauge fish populations. But according to a new study, a subset of fish is prone to being recaptured multiple times. Brendan Runde, a graduate student at North Carolina State University and lead author of the new study, says this means that “for most fisheries, we would be overestimating the number of fish.”

LINK (via: Hakai Magazine)

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