Glossary of Coded Wire Tag Terms

The following terms are used throughout the Coded Wire Tag Laboratory. Each term is followed by a definition and clicking on the term will produce a list of possible values and each value's corresponding code.

Agency

An acronym for the educational, private, or governmental entity conducting the study and responsible for the project.

A-Stream

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game maintains a catalog of names identifying all bodies of freshwater where anadromous fish breed. As of this writing, it may be reviewed on the web at http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/SARR/FishDistrib/FDD_intro.cfm . A-Stream numbers are based on a scheme which follows a particular body of freshwater from the statistical area of its marine estuary up through tributaries. A location that passes through many branches before reaching the ocean could have a very long A-Stream number.

Bi-week Calendar

Sport Biweeks run from Monday through Sunday.
Biweek 1 begins on January 1.
Biweek 2 begins on the third Monday of the year.
All biweeks except the first and last are exactly 14 days long.
The last biweek of the year ends on December 31.

Brood (brood_year)

The year when the adults, producing the progeny tagged, returned to spawn. If more than one brood present, as in some wild stock tagging projects, the year reported is the dominant or first brood year.

Canada Watershed Codes

The province of British Columbia maintains the most popular stream catalog for identifying freshwater locations in both BC and Yukon Territory. Canada Watershed applies only to certain samples taken on trans-boundary river systems. For freshwater samples taken wholly within Alaska, the anadromous stream number ("A-Stream") is employed instead.

Clip Status

The quality of the adipose clip as reported by sampler inspecting fish.

Contribution

Expansion Factor * Tag Ratio

Coordinator

The individual responsible for reporting tag code data to PSMFC.

CWT

Coded wire tag

Expansion Factor (Estimated)

(#caught(N) / #sampled(N2)) * (#ad clips(A1) / #received(A2)) * (#detected(M1) / #decoded(M2))

Experiment

The general classification of the type of experiment being conducted on non-production releases of tagged hatchery fish. Provided for Alaskan releases only.

Facility

The hatchery or facility where fish were reared.

Fishing Access

Identifies if sport fisher was fishing in freshwater or saltwater. If in saltwater the fisher was fishing from the shore or a boat.

Fishing Site

Used by Sport Fish Division of ADF&G in Southeast (SE) Alaska. Due to annual changes, contact SE Sport Fish Division for information on codes.

Gear

The method or means used to commercially catch fish.

Gear Class

Used to combine related gears. Currently gear and gear_class for all gears except for power and hand troll are the same. The gear_class for power and hand troll is troll.

Harvest

As used here distinguishes different types of commercial fisheries.

Length Type

Length_type_code describes what measurement was taken. Measurement is in millimeters.

Location

The facility name for hatchery release or, if preceded by (W), the wild brood stock name.

Mark

Describes the type of mark applied to a group of fish prior to release as a means of identification at a later time.

Method

The type of counting procedure used to estimate the number of unmarked fish represented by this tag code that were released.

Period

In some fisheries, like the SE troll fisheries, openings routinely span more than one statistical week. When calculating expansion factors we pool catch, sample and recovery statistics into time periods which include all weeks in an opening.

PSC

Pacific Salmon Commission

PSMFC

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission

Quadrant

A group of districts combined into a larger geographical unit. Quadrant was originally used to divide Southeast Alaska statistical districts into four large troll areas. Now other districts in the state are combined into unique larger units. The term quadrant no longer refers to only four areas.

Rearing

Code used to distinguish hatchery reared tag groups from wild stock tagging projects.

Release Type

Identifies if a tag code was used to represent hatchery production groups or hatchery experimental release groups, etc.

Run

As used here, defined as the season in which the majority of brood stock adults leave a marine environment and enter fresh water on the spawning migration.

Sampling Type

Identifies whether a tag was recovered from a recognized sampling program or voluntarily turned in to the department.

Sex

The gender of a particular fish in a sample expressed as either male or female.

Site

Location where tag group was released

Source

Used to distinguish major types of fisheries, like sport, commercial (common property), cost recovery, escapement, hatchery racks, etc.

Species

The sub-genus classification of salmonids being sampled.

Sport Harvest

As used here distinguishes different types of sport fisheries, like marine boat fisheries, derbies, freshwater fisheries, etc.

Sport Period Calendar

Seasonal Period 1 runs from biweek 1-12
Seasonal Period 2 runs from biweek 13-15
Seasonal Period 3 runs from biweek 16-yearend

Stage

The age at release of a group of tagged fish defined by certain growth or developmental parameters.

Stat Week Calendar

The ADF&G Statistical Week is 7 days long and runs from Sunday through Saturday.
The first Statistical week of the year may be less than 7 days and ends on the first Saturday.
Subsequent weeks are numbered chronologically through the end of the year.

State

Identifies the US state or Canadian province where tagged fish were released.

Stock

The stream of origin for a group of fish.

Survey Site

Identifies sampling places throughout the state.

Survival

Used here to grossly describe the projected long term life expectancy of a group of fish.

Tag Ratio

Total # of Fish Released (represented by this tag code includes tagged fish) / # of Fish Tagged (with this code)

Tag Status

Identifies the processing disposition of a sampled head. Catalogs if a head was lost, not received yet, a tag was found and read OK, etc.

Tag Type

Defines which type of internal coded wire tag was injected into fish in this release group.

Troll Period Calendar

A group of consecutive statistical weeks used for measuring commercial troll catch. The first period is 1 and begins at the beginning of stat week 1. After a certain number of stat weeks, period 2 begins, then period 3, etc. The actual weeks a period covers varies from year to year, as managers determine what best fits the characteristics of the troll fishery. The number of periods in a particular calendar year also varies, depending on the desires of the resource managers. For example, there were 3 periods in 1976 but 9 periods in 1989.

Water

Identifies if fish were released, recovered, caught or sampled in freshwater or saltwater.

Water PSC Short Name

Identifies in PSC reporting format if fish were released, recovered, caught or sampled in freshwater or saltwater.

Why Status 7

Categorizes the reason why a tag was assigned a tag_status = 7 (Nonsense). Only available for tags recovered in Alaskan waters.