Comparison of the Effectiveness of Different Tags in the Sea Urchin Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck, 1816)

Abstract

The marking of sea urchins was implemented with the main objective of being able to individually identify the urchins in the natural environment once released. In addition, it’s very useful to monitor individuals in studies of growth, movements, development, population dynamics, etc., that develop in the natural environment. Numerous different marking methodologies have been tested for sea urchins, either by physical marking (external and internal labels) or by using chemical marking methods consisting of the use of fluorochromes, which adhere to the calcified structures of the urchin. In this work, 5 different physical marks were used to mark 400 urchins of the Paracentrotus lividus species, which were kept for a month at the ECIMAT facilities in Toralla island. The efficacy of the methods used in each case was analyzed, comparing the survival rate and the tag retention rate of the tagged urchins obtained with each tagging methodology.