Streamer tag loss from American lobsters

Polyethylene streamer tags are commonly used in field studies of American l obsters Homarus americanus, but the loss rate of this tag and sources of va riability in tag loss have not been investigated. By applying a permanent m ark on American lobsters in Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, we estimated that streamer tag loss after 8-12 months was about 18%. Molting affected streame r tag loss (40.0% tag loss for molted individuals and 11.1% for nonmolted i ndividuals), but ta,a loss was unaffected by sex or size. This study demons trates that there can be substantial loss of streamer tags from lobsters. T he possibility that tag loss may introduce serious bias should be considere d for estimates of population characteristics based on streamer-tagged anim als.