A bright yellow tube protrudes from the abdomen with black numbers and letters. Attached to the yellow tubing is a bright red plastic tag on the inside of the fish with identical wording and tag number. Fish are placed on the measuring board and measured to the nearest millimeter. A uniquely numbered tag is pulled from the tagging board and the number recorded on the data sheet. All tags on the board are numbered in sequence from the lowest to highest number.
Care is taken to only go through the flesh so no internal organs are touched.
This does no harm to the fish and the incision heals in about 2-3 days. The end of the tag is inserted into the incision and pushed all the way into the abdominal cavity. Once inside, the yellow streamer is pulled gently to seat the tag against the inside of the abdominal wall. After the tag has been inserted correctly , the fish is released back into the water with the yellow streamer laying against the side of the fish. The yellow streamer has little effect on the swimming ability of the fish.