Swim Bladder Deflation in Black Sea Bass and Vermilion Snapper: Potential for Increasing Postrelease Survival

Abstract

Although some anglers regularly deflate swim bladders of demersal fishes being released, it is not known whether this practice actually increases postrelease survival of reef fishes. Benefits of deflating the swim bladder of black sea bass Centropristis striata and vermilion snapper Rhomboplites aurorubens before release were evaluated; survival of fishes deflated with one of two tools was compared to survival of nondeflated controls. Capture depths were 20-22 m, 29-35 m, and 43-55 m. Fishes were deflated with a 16-gauge hypodermic needle (99 black sea bass, 64 vermilion snapper) or with a Sea Grant tool consisting of a sharpened stainless steel canula (119 black sea bass, 64 vermilion snapper). Deflated fish were held in cages and observed in situ for 24 h. Controls (108 black sea bass, 89 vermilion snapper) were first segregated in a live well and then held in situ for 24 h in cages. Deflation, especially with the hypodermic needle, provided very significant reductions in mortality of black sea bass, and benefits of deflation increased with capture depth. Deflation for vermilion snapper was also beneficial, but to a lesser extent. Comparison of control results with a previous study using identical methods suggests that ascent speed may affect survival. Deflation of black sea bass and vermilion snapper by hypodermic needle is recommended for scientists. For anglers the Sea Grant tool may be a better choice; it is commonly used to apply dart-type tags and is readily available from some natural resources agency's tagging programs. Because the results differed for the two species, further study is needed to determine whether to recommend deflation as a standard practice for all reef fishes.

Immediate fate of angled-and-released Australian bass Macquaria novemaculeata

“…Although, no immediate negative consequences of barotrauma were observed, Hall et al (2009) highlighted the probability of at least some longer-term mortalities, which is also supported by the results of previous studies with other species (Feathers & Knable, 1983;Keniry et al, 1996;Gravel & Cooke, 2008). Venting could be an appropriate mitigation strategy, although there is debate over the effectiveness of this approach, mainly due to considerable species-specific variation in responses (Keniry et al, 1996;Shasteen & Sheehan, 1997;Collins et al, 1999). Further work is required to assess the benefits or otherwise of this procedure for Australian bass.…”

Home range and seasonal movements of Black Sea Bass (Centropristis striata) during their inshore residency at a reef in the mid-Atlantic Bight

“…Upon capture, all fi sh were immediately placed into onboard holding tanks supplied with fl ow-through seawater. Although swim bladder infl ation was evident in most fi sh, neither defl ation with a hypodermic needle (Collins et al, 1999) nor "hanging" the traps at a depth of 10 m (Neufeld and Spence, 2004) completely eliminated decompression trauma. Before surgery, we anesthetized fi sh with 80 mg/L Aqui-S (Aqui-S New Zealand Ltd., Lower Hutt, New Zealand); this concentration allowed us to induce anesthesia in reasonably short times (mean, 3.3 min; range, 1.1-7.7 min; n=127 [induction time was not recorded for 2 fi sh]).…”

A Review of Catch-and-Release Angling Mortality with Implications for No-take Reserves

“…In contrast, mortality was higher for smaller than larger individuals for lake trout (Loftus, 1986) and Chinook salmon (Bendock and Alexandersdottir, 1993). Nine studies reported no mortality differences due to fish size, including striped bass (Bettoli and Osborne, 1998;Nelson, 1998;Wilde et al 2000, in a review), blue cod (Carbines, 1999), common snook (Taylor et al, 2001), spotted seatrout (Murphy et al, 1995), cutthroat trout (Pauley and Thomas, 1993), rainbow trout (Schisler and Bergersen, 1996), black sea bass and vermilion snapper (Collins et al, 1999).…”