Acoustic tag retention of the Mediterranean slipper lobster Scyllarides latus (...

• Author(s): Schmiing, Mara ; Afonso, Pedro
• Date: 2009
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/447
• Origin: Repositório da Universidade dos Açores
• Subject(s): Scyllarides latus (Latreille, 1802); Comportamento; Telemetria Acústica; Açores; Behaviour; Acoustic Telemetry; Azores
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Moulting, growth and retention of externally attached acoustic tags were studied in ten Mediterranean slipper lobsters, Scyllarides latus (Latreille, 1802). Animals were kept in a cage at 20 m depth in Faial Island, Azores, over a period of nine months. No negative effects of tag attachment on moult or behaviour were detected, but a negative effect on growth cannot be excluded. Moulting was correlated with ambient water temperature and resulted in an increase of approximately 7% in mean size and 17% in mean weight. The results demonstrate that the use of externally attached acoustic transmitters in this species is adequate for medium-term movement studies but not for longer-term annual studies, due to the rate of molting.