| Ecologists and conservation biologists have had an increasing interest in landscape ecology, fragmentation and meta-population structures and dynamics for endangered or threatened species of wildlife (Nichols et al. 1992). They have realized the need for parameter estimates to use in these models; and have tried estimation of transition probabilities among stages using tag-return and capture-recapture models. These transition probabilities are composed of survival and movement rates and can only be estimated separately when an additional assumption is made (Brownie et al. 1993) that movement occurs at the end of the interval between time i and i + 1. We generalize this work to allow different movement patterns in the interval for multiple tag-recovery and capture-recapture experiments.; With methods of separating survival and movement rates in multi-state tag-return and capture-recapture models, we develop multi-state fishery tag return models that have potential for fisheries that have multiple sites or patches with movement possible between sites. We build on models developed by Brownie et al. (1985), Pollock et al. (1991, 1995), Hoenig et al. (1998 a, b), and Hearn et al. (1998) on twice-a-year tagging for single state models. These methods allow the estimation of patch-specific natural and fishing mortality rates and movement rates between patches.; We then develop multi-state fishery tag-return and capture-recapture models that have potential for fisheries that have multiple sites or patches with movement possible between sites when tagging takes place twice a year. These methods allow the estimation of patch-specific reporting, natural and fishing mortality rates, and movement rates between patches with movement time following a uniform distribution for two special cases: (1) a two-site tag-return fisheries model; (2) a two-site model with capture-recapture catch and release sampling in a marine reserve closed to regular fishing and the more usual tag-return sampling in the fishery area, since marine reserves which provide a refuge from fishing are gaining in popularity as a tool of fisheries management, but their effectiveness needs to be evaluated. We present small simulation studies and compare the Relative Bias and Relative Standard Errors (RES) of estimates as well as the correlations between estimates. |
