Tagging Fish in the Field: Ethical and Procedural Considerations. A Comment to the Recent Paper of D. Mulcahy; Legal, Ethical and Procedural Bases for the Use of Aseptic Techniques to Implant Electronic Devices, (Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 4:211–219)

Acoustic telemetry and fisheries management

“…), but external attachment or gastric insertion (down the throat into stomach) are also common (Bridger and Booth , Jepsen et al. ). Individual tags can be coded so that individual IDs are transmitted to facilitate tracking movement of individuals within a group.…”

Effects of surgically implanted tags and translocation on the movements of common bream Abramis brama (L.)

“…This approach was adopted following advice from the regulator. This subject has been cause for recent debate and some now consider it important to discourage researchers from taking unnecessary precautions unless there are specific (documented) problems with infections (see Jepsen et al, 2013, 2014a. The mean linear range LR (±SE) over five concurrent five day periods up to 25 days after release for the translocated group (n = 3; light grey bars) and nontranslocated control group (n = 7; dark grey bars).…”

A Reply to Jepsen, N., K. Aarestrup and S.J. Cooke. Tagging Fish in the Field: Ethical and Procedural Considerations. A Comment to the Recent Paper of D. Mulcahy; Legal, Ethical and Procedural Bases for the Use of Aseptic Techniques to Implant Electronic Devices, (Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 4:211–219)

“…thank Jepsen et al (2014) for a second opportunity to comment on their position relative to the use of aseptic surgical techniques for the implantation of transmitters into fish. The first opportunity was their publication ''testing'' whether aseptic technique affected surgical implantation of transmitters into fish (Jepsen et al 2013), to which I coauthored a response (Mulcahy and Harms 2014).…”

“…Where possible, herein I will avoid repeating arguments already made in our reply to Jepsen et al (2013). For clarity, I use italics to identify major quotations from Jepsen et al (2014) or Jepsen et al (2013) to which I respond. Quotations for emphasis or from other sources are not italicized.…”

“…Quotations for emphasis or from other sources are not italicized. Jepsen et al (2014) largely ignore the legal and procedural components of my paper (Mulcahy 2013), and concentrate on the ethical content, specifically on my stance that aseptic surgical technique is the standard of care for transmitter implantation surgeries with few exceptions. Jepsen et al (2014) extend their criticisms to a previous paper of mine (Mulcahy 2003).…”