[MR.FREEZ]

i watching a fishin show the other day and this guy

would take a needle to stick in the fish and release

the air in the fishes swim bladder that gets trapped

in there after gettin pulled to surface so fast. it lets

the air out so the fish can get back down to were it was.

even so just the stress of being reeled in like that has

to be intense, even in shallower waters.

i was just wondering if you guys might

know of a study or something that could shed some light

on how many fish actually survive "catch and release".

it doesnt seem like to many would die really, just

haul ass to the bottom and rest for awhile

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[Gumby]

Well, like you said, if the fish are haulled up from deep enough water they can get the bends (nitrogen poisoning). If they survive the bends, you can bet that their immune system drops very low. Hook in the mouth + the bends + stress = death in some cases.

Here's a study I found: http://www.acuteangl...RMortality.html

Apparently where the fish are hooked (deep in the mouth/gills or in the lip/mouth) makes a big difference. If they are hooked deep, there can be up to a 35% mortality rate. In the mouth, 1-5%.

I don't think that study addressed the depth and speed reeled in factor. I can personally tell you that it plays a big role in how the fish survive. I typically go "deep sea" fishing once or twice a year. We bottom fish in water 200-500ft deep. I've seen fish reeled up so fast that their guts(air bladder?) come out their mouth. A lot of times it was the smaller fish that we weren't able to keep so we had to toss them back. Once they hit the water they started swimming in circles so the dolphins ate them.

[moeplz]

Just like scuba diving...

[Gumby]

Except the getting eaten by dolphins part...

[piranhasrule]

Not sure about salt water fishing but i was told theres a very high mortality rate with adult salmonids (salmon,trout etc) as the lactic acids build up to really high levels in the big ones

[acestro]

It's a good question, best bet is to study telemetry work (which is more and more common with fish).

Mark and recapture with fish is famous (in science) for being almost futile. Fish often vanish (maybe as survivors, maybe not!). There's a good paper on Cichla (Peacock bass) being marked and recaptured. They got a few back but didn't consider the numbers as a sign of survival (they were just monitoring movements).

[bmpower007]

Interestead stuff I always thought about this when I see people catching adn tossing fish off the pier alot of times fish end up belly floping especially rays

[furious piranha]

piranhasrule, on Mar 22 2006, 08:06 PM, said:

Not sure about salt water fishing but i was told theres a very high mortality rate with adult salmonids (salmon,trout etc) as the lactic acids build up to really high levels in the big ones

thats not really a fair argument bc fish like trout are really fragile. a fish like a catfish probably hardly ever dies, so its probably really hard to give u an answer on this 1 freez

[piranhasrule]

I was simply pointing out that theres a high mortality rate amongst adult salmonids, which is a proven fact. I never said that applied to all fish. Infact i'm pretty sure alot of adult fish survive. I believe the old Brittish record carp was caught about 10 times and it lived to an old age. The same with the record barbel, that was caught twice within a week.

[MR.FREEZ]

i guess it would count on how fragile a fish is,

im sure different fish would have a higher

mortality rate then others.

[acestro]

Maybe the salmon being caught are ones that are going upstream to spawn (and are about to die anyways)?

[piranhasrule]

Possibly. I cant remember where I heard that info but i think it might have been when I went on a fishing trip to Scotland. We hired a ghillie and it could have been him that told me.

This post has been edited by piranhasrule: 14 April 2006 - 06:16 PM