Reply With QuoteOne thing is 100% certain, you put it in the esky, it's dead, you toss it back, even badly handled and half dead, it's got a chance, how many released fish live is often debated, who knows for sure?
Hi all I caught a 12 kg mulloway in 20m of water the other day and it had burst its swim bladder. For several reasons I didn’t think it was a Jew during the fight and got a huge surprise when first sighted. I already had a 5 kg snapper in the esky so I considered releasing it but due to the swim bladder thing I kept it. It stayed alive in the boat for probably half an hour or so grunting at me and giving a tail slap every now and then. So my question is has anyone been in the same position and successfully released a fish like this? Or anything similar that had burst its bladder?
Cheers for replies...Paul
One thing is 100% certain, you put it in the esky, it's dead, you toss it back, even badly handled and half dead, it's got a chance, how many released fish live is often debated, who knows for sure?
Thanks NoelM but the whole swim bladder thing I wasn’t sure if this meant dead for sure or not. There must be some science behind this aspect of it?Originally Posted by Noelm
Best you can do in this situation is a heavy release weight. Whether or not the barotrauma is terminal depends on species, depth, speed of ascent and probably a host of other things.I'm not sure personally but someone from fisheries may know. I recall reading about research being conducted but can't recall what species were involved. Small fish are easily done on weight of a pound or so - we use a modified snapper lead. I have also figured out a way to use my anchor winch should the need arise on a large fish via a length of line and a large barbless hook.
There has been lots written about piercing the swim bladder through a tiny hole, weighting fish and sending them down, handling fish better before release, all sorts of things, who really knows if a fish survives? I am sure lots do, but I am equally sure lots don't, if the fish is not wanted, then good handling, quick release has got to be worth a shot. The evidence from returned tags supports decent survival rates, but lots of tags are never returned too.
OH, and just to add, a 12KG Mulloway is staying in my esky!
There has been decent research done here in Qld re released fish survival rates of a reasonably wide range of species.
I understand that the researchers had special tube nets or cages made up that allowed released fish to be returned to the depths, and then they checked the survival rates hours and even days later.
I will see if I can find a link to further info. I do recall that survival rates varied substantially between different species. Red emperor for example are almost indestructable, while tusk fish are the complete opposite.
Note to self: Don't argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience....
Yeah, I agree with you, it's just that I guess there is no way to be 100% certain any fish you throw back will live, but, toss it in the esky, it's certainly dead.
I have been actively involved in a few of the released fish survival studies here in Queensland. The projects that I helped with include Snapper, red emperor, pearl perch and dusky flathead. Fisheries have also completed studies on red throat emperor, coral trout, saddle tail snapper plus a number of other reef species.
Basically, the projects called for keen recreational and commercial fishers to go out with the Tom Marshall research vessel and catch these species, record all the information such as depth fished, hooking location, observed barotrauma details and get them to the research boat for tagging and subsequent release into the holding cages or tanks for further study. The best holding cages were the floating "socks". They were a 16 metre deep, 2 metre diameter sock made from trawl mesh that was held on the surface by floats and anchored in sheltered areas to allow researchers to study the survival and health of the fish released into them. Researchers also trialed large crab pot style cages placed on the sea floor, and also used 2 metre round tubs held on the back deck of the Tom Marshall vessel. The fish placed in the various holding facilities were studied for 6 to 7 days to watch for signs of mortality. It was considered that any fish that had survived for that period of time was pretty much going to survive long term.
The red emperor study was done off Double Island Point with fish captured in 50 - 60 metres on average and held in the socks inside the point in sheltered waters. From memory, the survival rate was about 98%, and from that it was determined that they are a pretty tough fish and handled being caught and released very well.
The snapper and pearl perch study was held at Wide Caloundra with fish caught between 50 and 100 metres depth. Due to the distances in getting the fish to a sheltered location where the socks could be deployed, the fish were held in tubs on the deck of the research boat with constant water pumped into the tanks. The biggest snapper held in the tubs was a 6kg fish. A lot of the pearl perch were caught in 100 metres depth and while being held in our on board tanks were all floating upside down and barely kicking their tails. A number of these fish had blown swim bladders and they were punctured by using a thin bladed knife to deflate them before going into the holding tanks. Survival rates after 6 days were 93% for the pearl perch, and 95% for the snapper. Those fish were euthanized at the end of the study so that researchers could perform autopsies on them to check for signs of long term damage. Where fish had their swim bladders pierced, all had healed over to the point where the swim bladders could be inflated and still hold air.
The dusky flathead study was held at Jumpinpin with the fish again held in the tubs on the deck of the boat. In this case, most of the boats catching the fish were ANSA Qld members using their own boats and holding the fish in eskies full of water until they could be collected by the research boat. Over the day and a half of fishing around 200 flathead were caught, tagged and released into the holding tanks. We also made sure where fish had swallowed hooks or were deep hooked, particularly on lures or jig heads, that the hooks were cut off and left in the fish with the tag number recorded as a fish with hook left in place. Most fish had disgorged the hooks withing a 24 hour period of being placed in the holding tubs and the survival rate over the week of study was over 95%.
What all the studies did show was that most of the reef fish species are very capable of good survival prospects if handled correctly and gotten back into the water in a reasonable period of time. I carry a release weight in my boat which consists of a barbless hook moulded into a 16 ounce snapper sinker. A swivel allows for the line to be tied to the bend of the hook and it is placed in the lower jaw of the fish and dropped to a depth of around 15 - 20 metres before being stopped. The fish will just slide off the hook and swim away. If the fish has a blown swim bladder, dropping it to those depths will assist in deflating the swim bladder by water pressure. I'm pretty confident that the majority of those fish should survive.
If you don't have a release device on board, then pierce the swim bladder to help the fish swim down and chances are it will have pretty good chances of surviving. Certainly far better than tossing it overboard and left to float away on the current if the air bladder is not deflated.
For a bit of interesting information, back when I was involved in the ANSA Qld sportfish tagging program, I recaptured a tagged snapper. Mick Clutterbuck caught, tagged and released the fish in 100 metres of water at Deep Tempest off Moreton Island. I recaptured the fish 8 months later in 125 metres depth about 5 miles north east of where it was tagged. The fish was perfectly healthy when I caught it and the only way anyone would have known it had been caught before was the tag in it's back. I released the fish after recording the tag details and I am sure it is still out there somewhere waiting to be caught again.
cheers
Jeff
See below.
If mulloway are anything like their cousins, Teraglin, they wouldnt release well at all.
The research says if trag are caught deeper than 80m, hardly any at all survive being released.
If caught from less than 50m, even if released properly, less than 50% survive.
Some links:
General Qld Fisheries video re release techniques, plus snapper, trag and pearl perch info
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=...&v=p1wpfXEIZfo
Tropical reef species detailed research paper
http://frdc.com.au/project?id=1407
Pearl perch research
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...65783613002993
Snapper Pearl perch and trag detailed research paper
http://frdc.com.au/project?id=996
Pretty sure Short Fuse was involved in gathering fish for a lot of this research.
Note to self: Don't argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience....
That’s awesome info thanks for all the replies..I reckon if I was to get 2 at that size I would try release the second one but i will have to work on catching them first! Given I was only floatlining with Pilchards I would have loved to see what a lively would have produced. Thanks again...
Paul
Here is info from the NT on black jewfish, very close rello to east coast jewfish/mulloway.
As suspected they are very susceptible to barotrauma
http://frdc.com.au/Archived-Reports/...04-004-DLD.PDF
Video
https://www.facebook.com/FisheriesNT...1917774897595/
Note to self: Don't argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience....
next time try killing your fish they will be better eating then rather than letting them die slowly putting enzymes thru the flesh..rick
[QUOTE=rickmarlin62;1645608]next time try killing your fish they will be better eating then rather than letting them die slowly putting enzymes thru the flesh..rick[/QUOTE
Great advice and the first thing I thought of when I read the post.Best method is a spike in the soft spot just behind the eye (Iki Jime?), relaxes the muscles and stops the release of any more amino acids etc.
Puncturing the distended bit poking out of the mouth will almost certainly kill the fish,the accepted method is to place a Trocar below the lateral line behind the stomach going in under a scale without removing it if you don't have one a thin tip fillet knife is nearly as good.If your not confident of finding the right spot there above the vent (arsehole) works well but you need the Trocar for that one.Without doubt though best method is the release bomb.
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