Watch it Ron, you will have peopleronje wrote:It's not a perfect world in which we live. There was only ever one perfect human and he was crucified at the age of 32. We don't want to follow him do we.
There'll always be the chance of incorrect measurements when involved in fish tagging.
Shrinkages are easy to detect.
What about incorrect growth? Tagged mistakenly at 52 cm when it was really 57 and then recaptured and measured 12 months later at 61cm. Superficially it's grown 9cm in 12 months. In a good paddock perhaps? Maybe. Its real growth is actually 4cm in a year. Entirely believeable.
There is still a lot of good data collected. How long free, where has it travelled from and to, type of fish etc.
Its not a real problem though. Just discount the length.
Its not a problem compared to some others though.
A 62cm flathead tagged and recorded only to be recaptured later as a 42cm bream! That's a problem. But it happens.
Could be a genuine mistake in transcribing data or simply sabotage.
Somebody caught the flathead, kept the tag and put it in a bream caught at another time. That wouldn't happen on this forum though.
Look on the tag returns as pretty good indicators and not simply gospel.
agreeing with you if your not careful.