Abstract
Stocks of Turbo militaris (Turbinidae) are under increasing harvesting pressure, but management is currently hampered by data deficiency. Management decisions for rocky‐reef gastropod fisheries should consider long‐term species mobility, yet this is often poorly understood. Therefore, mark‐recapture was used to evaluate annual displacement and upshore‐to‐downshore movement of T. militaris in Eastern Australia. Tags were glued onto 676 snails, their positions georeferenced and recapture surveys were conducted after 6 and 12 months. Overall, 25% of tagged snails were recaptured. Snails moved an average of 20–21 m year −1 at subtropical sites and 34–44 m year −1 at temperate sites. Movement was non‐directional, limited in upshore‐to‐downshore mixing and unrelated to animal size. T. militaris is neither sedentary nor site‐attached, and small and large snails move similarly. Our findings suggest a limited capacity for adults to repopulate other tidal zones, thus recreational harvesting could impact intertidal snails.