Pre- and post-season tagging models: estimation of reporting rate and fishing and natural mortality rates

Abstract

Brownie et al. (1985, U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv. Resour. Publ. 156, p. 159) presented models for tag returns from multiple taggings of animals when tagging is done twice per year. Here, we present a reformulation of their model suitable for pre- and post-season fishery tag return studies. Under this model, it is possible to estimate fishing mortality, natural mortality, and reporting rate from the tag return data alone. (Under once-a-year tagging models, the reporting rate usually has to be estimated externally.) We consider two special cases: (i) a pulse fishery and (ii) a continuous fishery over part of the year. An artificial example and simulation results are presented to illustrate the methodology and the properties of the various estimators. Unlike for catch-based methods, the correlation between estimates of fishing mortality and natural mortality is moderate. While pre- and post-season tagging studies are likely to be difficult to run in practice, other methods of estimating reporting rate are also difficult to implement, and therefore, this approach may prove quite useful, especially in fisheries that have heavy exploitation rates.