Important points for using vitality in survival and mortality predictions

• Choose reflex actions that are consistently present in unstressed animals.

• Clearly define what is meant by present, impaired, and absent for reflex actions and injuries (see Meeremans et al. 2017)

• Standardize testing for reflex impairment and injury.

• Clearly identify relevant stressors in the fishery that will be evaluated using vitality impairment and include them in stressor experiments. 

• Design stressor experiments that will result in vitality impairment and delayed mortality ranging from 0 to 100%, to produce a complete relationship.

• Minimize stress for animals in captive observation or tagging methods for observing delayed mortality.

• Vitality impairment or delayed mortality for control animals indicates that holding conditions are stressful and should be improved.