Survival (S) of each cohort in each release location over time was
calculated using the equation:
St = Nt
.
Nr
ð1Þ
where Nt is number alive on each sampling occasion and Nr is the
number initially released. Nt was estimated using the total number of
tagged crabs captured during a sampling period and adjusting for tag
loss (Davis et al., 2004b), gear efficiency (Davis et al., 2005b), and the
proportion of the release site sampled. For brevity, the mathematical
equations for estimating size-dependent probabilities of tag loss and
gear efficiency are not presented here, but are discussed in detail by
Davis et al. (2004a, 2005b). The proportion of each release site that was
sampled was calculated by dividing the total area sampled by seines and
tows by the total release area estimated from high resolution aerial
photographs using Google Earth Pro (Google Earth Pro Edition 2009,
Google, Inc.). The proportion of each release site sampled varied and
ranged from 0.14 to 0.38 (Table 1).