Viability criteria for tagging toothfish

CCAMLR Conservation measures currently require vessels to tag only toothfish with a high probability of survival, but no objective criteria are provided for this evaluation. Achieving this requires an objective evaluation of the probability of survival of each fish to be tagged, which in turn requires objective criteria that link observable characteristics to survival. This paper proposes criteria based on assessments of injuries and vitality used on other species and includes several options for implementation in CCAMLR tagging programmes.