ABSTRACT
Passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags were injected into brood animals of the echinoids Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, S. pallidus, and Echinus esculentus to determine the feasibility of this tagging method as a means of nondestructive individual identification of laboratory animals. A pilot study of S. droebachiensis, which included a group of 16 tagged animals and a control group of 16 animals without tags, demonstrated no tagging mortality after 10 weeks. It is therefore suggested that KCl injection should be postponed until the tagged animals have recovered from the trauma of being tagged. Growth of the tagged animals appeared normal throughout the one year study period.
