Mortality associated with catch and release of striped bass in the Hudson River

Abstract

Catch‐and‐release fishing has increased in many fisheries, but its contribution to fishing mortality is rarely estimated. This study estimated catch and release mortality rates of striped bass, Morone saxatilis (Walbaum), for the spring recreational fishery in the Hudson River. Treatment fish (caught with live bait on spinning gear) and control fish (captured by electric fishing) were placed in in situ holding pens for 5 days. Mortality rates were estimated using conditional instantaneous mortality rates and additive finite mortality rates. Influences of variables (playing and handling time, hook location, degree of bleeding and fish length) on hooking mortality rates were examined by logistic regression. Conditional instantaneous mortality rates and additive finite mortality rates were 31 and 28%, respectively. Hook location significantly affected the survival of striped bass. Angling catch, effort, and release rates must be integrated with associated hooking mortality rates before this component of overall population mortality can be incorporated into management decisions.

Effect of changes in hook pattern and size on catch rate, hooking location, injury and bleeding for a number of tropical reef fish species

“…Injury data were aggregated into two categories (injured or not injured), and hooking location was aggregated into three categories for analysis (shallow, lip and mouth; deep, throat and gut; other, eye and foul hooked). The grouping of hooking location is consistent with other studies which have shown a correlation between mortality and deep hooking in the gills, oesophagus or throat (Muoneke and Childress, 1994;Diggles and Ernst, 1997;Millard et al, 2003). Fish were unhooked using pliers or de-hookers, then tagged with unique identifiable dart tag and released.…”

“…Diggles and Ernst (1997) concluded that hooking location was the most important factor affecting mortality of two small reef fish species, wire netting cod (Epinephelus quoyanus) and yellow stripey (Lutjanus carponotatus) caught from the GBR. Hook location has also been a significant factor affecting survival of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), with deep-hooked fish more likely to die than lip-hooked fish (Grover et al, 2002;Millard et al, 2003). The rates of deep hooking observed in our study varied between fish species, hook patterns and hook sizes.…”

Short-term hooking mortality of three marine fish species (Sparidae) caught by recreational angling in the south Portugal

“…Ayvazian et al, 2002;Millard et al, 2003;Broadhurst et al, 2005;Butcher et al, 2006;Götz et al, 2007;Grixti et al, 2007;Alós et al, 2008a), and is considered the most important factor affecting PRM (Muoneke and Childress, 1994;Bartholomew and Bohnsack, 2005,). This was confirmed by our results, as AHL was the only significant predictor of mortality for S. aurata.…”

Peacock bass mortality associated with catch-and-release sport fishing in the Negro River, Amazonas State, Brazil

“…The experiments in the Negro River basin showed that all peacock bass mortalities were associated with gill and throat injuries, supporting the argument that hook location is a strong factor in fish mortality (Millard et al 2003;Alós 2009;Broadhurst et al 2012 a, b). Both fish which suffered throat injuries in our study died, while gill injuries resulted in death 40% of the time.…”