Although he didn\u2019t use the \u201cgizmos and gadgets,\u201d Foster says these tools have potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn looking at what they were doing on a small scale, I can see a fair number of fishermen willing to do something like that,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are size and harvest limits, and seasons for the fishes any angler can catch. If regulations prevent the fish from being kept, the fisherman must release it. However, some fishes need help to get away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When anglers quickly reel in a fish from deep depths, the gas inside its swim bladder expands. Sometimes, the fish is too bloated to submerge upon release. Its expanded swim bladder acts like an inflated pool float.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This keeps the fish at the surface where it\u2019s easy prey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt kills me to see a 5-pound fish floating with seagulls poking at him because he can\u2019t get underwater,\u201d says Skip Feller, a Virginia Beach charter captain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This phenomenon is called barotrauma. Symptoms include bulging eyes, or organs protruding from the mouth, gills or anus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sea Grant specialists collaborated with several charter boat captains in their states, including Foster and Feller, to develop and test descending devices. Their instruments were designed to bring multiple released fishes below the surface at once and improve their survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The National Sea Grant College Program<\/u><\/span><\/a> funded the project in response to a management need expressed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s National Marine Fisheries Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe chose Sea Grant because we felt confident that it would develop a practical and reliable product that would really work on a charter boat,\u201d says Kevin Chu, NOAA Fisheries assistant regional administrator for constituent engagement for the greater Atlantic region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe, like Sea Grant, are looking for ways to improve the survivorship of fish that are discarded,\u201d Chu adds. \u201cWe asked Sea Grant to try to develop a practical method for returning multiple fish to depth, because we know that Sea Grant staff work well with the recreational fishing industry, are creative in their approaches to problem solving, and have a track record of success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many ways to help a fish get back to depth. First, there\u2019s venting. Fishermen use a thin needle to puncture the swim bladder and release the trapped gases. Also, anglers can use single-fish descending devices to submerge one fish at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But on charter boats, where a dozen or more fishes might get released at the same time, these methods are inefficient. The Sea Grant team came up with a unique solution: gear that could accommodate and lower many fishes at once to keep up with the high volume of fishing activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ideal device would allow anglers space to fish, and would be manageable by the already busy crew. It had to be compact and easy for a mate to hand-deploy over the rail, without taking significant time away from supporting customers on board. But why bother to return a fish to depth if it\u2019s so much trouble?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy law, federal fishery managers must account for all fish interactions, including those that are caught and then, for whatever reason, released by anglers,\u201d explains Scott Baker<\/a>, North Carolina Sea Grant fishery specialist and one of the project collaborators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe number of fishes that are kept and the number of released fishes that die as a result of fishing all go toward the Annual Catch Limit or \u2018quota\u2019 for the year,\u201d Baker continues. \u201cReducing the number of released fishes that die as a result of fishing should result in more fishing opportunities for anglers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scientists have long assumed that fishes suffering from barotrauma did not survive after being released. However, a 2011 study funded by North Carolina Sea Grant found that this supposition overestimated fish mortality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers \u2014 led by North Carolina commercial fisherman Tom Burgess and Jeffrey Buckel, a fisheries biologist who is on faculty at North Carolina State University \u2014 studied the effects of barotrauma on black sea bass that were captured at depths common to the fishery. They discovered that the majority of the sea bass that made it down to depth survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBlack sea bass was an ideal candidate for the research because the species can suffer from barotrauma, and a high percentage of recreationally caught fish are released by anglers,\u201d Baker notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black sea bass that swam down \u2014 whether or not they showed signs of barotrauma \u2014 had a 93 percent survival rate, while only 17 percent of the fish that floated survived, the final project report noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThus, our study supports the conclusion that swimming down after release is a reasonably good indication of survival in black sea bass,\u201d they wrote. To view their final report, go to ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/search<\/u><\/span><\/a> and look for 2011-FEG-04 in the Project Number field.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council applied this estimate of discard survival to the black sea bass population in the South Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With input from captains, the research team designed several different devices and tested multiple prototypes. For their study in winter and spring 2015, they tested a weighted hoop-net device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The device is a tubular net, with one end closed and the other open. As anglers catch fishes, they put the ones they want to release into the net. To release the fishes, the hoop-net is dropped overboard. The device falls through the water with the opening facing down. The weight of the hoop pulls the net down, fishes and all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEach fish is like a balloon and has a buoyancy factor that must be countered,\u201d explains Bob Fisher, with Virginia Institute of Marine Science extension<\/u><\/span><\/a>. He is affiliated with Virginia Sea Grant and one of the researchers on the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hoop must weigh enough to sink, despite the little fish \u201cballoons\u201d floating in the net. The fish\u2019s swim bladder recompresses as it is pulled down, and the fish regains the ability to swim out on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team tested the design on several species including blueline tilefish, triggerfish, blackbellied rosefish and black sea bass \u2014 which they encountered the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom what we can tell, it works. It\u2019s relatively easy. It\u2019s quick. It doesn\u2019t take up a lot of space. It has all the pluses in terms of use and time and space,\u201d says Michael Danko, assistant director for extension for the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium<\/u><\/span><\/a> and another member of the research team. \u201cWe need to do more tagging to find out if the device is actually effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers descended a total of 227 fish. Of those, 161 fish \u2014 including 61 in North Carolina \u2014 were tagged and will be monitored by tagging programs in each state. Recapture of those fishes will help researchers estimate how well descending devices improve survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great tool, but it\u2019s going to be one of many tools,\u201d Danko predicts. \u201cThere\u2019s no one set tool or device that everybody can use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During trials, the Sea Grant specialists also discussed barotrauma with anglers, and gauged their opinions about using the descending devices. See the story<\/a> by Sara Mirabilio<\/u><\/span><\/a>, North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries specialist and another team member, for more on the education and outreach portion of this study.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While the trials were promising, there\u2019s still work ahead to get captain and angler buy in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGetting fishermen \u2014 recreational anglers and commercial fishermen too \u2014 to use stuff like that is challenging,\u201d Foster says. \u201cBut I think the way Sea Grant goes about it, where they work cooperatively with boats rather than order them around, it has potential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go to<\/em> youtu.be\/fREWb8kwRcE<\/u><\/span><\/a> for a three-minute video that explains barotrauma. The final report is available at<\/em> go.ncsu.edu\/nvuw10<\/u><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article was published in the Holiday 2015<\/a> issue of Coastwatch.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\nBack to the Deep<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Designing a Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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