Coded wire tag

for scale A coded wire tag (CWT) is an animal tagging device, most often used for identifying batches of fish. It consists of a length of magnetized stainless steel wire 0.25 mm in diameter and typically 1.1 mm long. The tag is marked with rows of numbers denoting specific batch or individual codes. The tag is usually injected into the snout or cheek of a fish so that it may be tracked for research or fisheries management. Fish, crustaceans, insects, gastropods, and many other animals have been successfully tagged with Coded Wire Tags. The coded wire tag program in the Pacific Northwest has been described as the largest animal tagging program in history, with over 1 billion salmon tagged.

for scale A coded wire tag (CWT) is an animal tagging device, most often used for identifying batches of fish. It consists of a length of magnetized stainless steel wire 0.25 mm in diameter and typically 1.1 mm long. The tag is marked with rows of numbers denoting specific batch or individual codes. The tag is usually injected into the snout or cheek of a fish so that it may be tracked for research or fisheries management. Fish, crustaceans, insects, gastropods, and many other animals have been successfully tagged with Coded Wire Tags. The coded wire tag program in the Pacific Northwest has been described as the largest animal tagging program in history, with over 1 billion salmon tagged. ==Data retrieval== The CWT is not visible once inside the fish; its presence is detected at close range by using a handheld wand or tunnel type detector that can sense the magnetized metal. A number code unique to either a group of fish or an individual fish is etched into the surface of the CWT, and to read the code the fish is killed first so that the tag can be removed and inspected under a microscope. Upon insertion, information about the fish such as hatching date, release date, location, species, sex, and length are recorded along with the corresponding tag code into a database, so that codes on recovered tags can be matched to information within that database. Coded wire tags have been used to research fish species from over 40 different families.

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