Superglue is Not Super: An Assessment of Superglue for Suturing Tag Incisions in a Cultured Marine Fish

Abstract

Tagging is a necessary tool for many aquaculture and ecological studies, particularly in the marine environment where constant visual monitoring is extremely difficult and costly. Tagging is also widely used as a means of identifying individual fish in fisheries conservation programs. External tagging is generally thought to be the simpler form of tagging, yet the technique is plagued by many problems that include drag caused by fouling (Ross and McCormick 1981) and infection (Bergman et al. 1992). This has led researchers to use implanted tags that, in addition to containing information to identify an individual, can be used to record physiological variables such as blood temperature, heart beat rates, and movement (Cooke et al. 2004). Since the 1980s, passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags have been increasingly used over external tags because of their ease of use and low cost (Gibbons and Andrews 2004). They are primarily used in fingerling release studies and for monitoring the movement of fish (Ombredane et al. 1998). Although it is generally agreed that PIT tags are a useful means of tracking individual fish, researchers disagree on the best method of maximizing tag retention once it has been implanted. Some advocate that traditional suturing is necessary for effective tag retention (Baras et al. 1999), while others consider it too time consuming when dealing with large numbers of fish (reviewed by Jepsen et al. 2002). From an ethical perspective, closing the wound after inserting a tag is likely to be important in terms of reducing infection. Cyanoacrylate, or superglue, has been considered as an alternative to traditional thread suturing of small wounds because of the