Bowfishing shoot and release: High short‐term mortality of nongame fishes and its management implications

Abstract

ObjectiveAlthough bowfishing is legal in all 50 states in the USA, the practice of releasing shot fish is only legal in 8 states. An argument favoring this practice has been that survival of fish after shoot‐and‐release fishing is high. Bowfishing mortality trials were conducted in 2021–2022 in Lake Texoma, Oklahoma, to quantify shoot‐and‐release mortality and characterize the mortality via the location of the wound associated with the release of fish shot by bowfishing.MethodsA total of 240 nongame fish were shot by experienced bowfishers with conventional bowfishing equipment and held in convalescent pools, with control fish captured by electrofishing to document short‐term mortality up to 5 days.ResultOverall mortality of bowfished fish was 87% versus 0% for control fish. Fish shot in critical areas (head, internal organs, or spine; 78% of total) suffered 96% mortality, whereas fish shot in noncritical areas (dorsal musculature, tail, or fins) experienced 52% mortality. In addition, 13.7% of fish shot were not successfully retrieved. Shot fish were generally older (mean = 19.4 years, range = 3–54) and contained more females (62%) than control fish (mean = 12.5 years, range = 2–39; 37% female), providing evidence that bowfishing can remove individuals of great recruitment value. The shoot‐and‐release mortality rates in this study, for fish shot in both critical and noncritical areas, exceeded mortality from a wide range of angler catch and release in other studies.ConclusionThe high mortality rate associated with shoot and release observed in this study and as practiced by recreational bowfisheries renders shoot and release inconsistent with scientifically regulated and sustainable bowfisheries for native nongame species. These results provide evidence that the bow and arrow, when aimed at animals, is a weapon that is intended to kill. Bowfishing should realistically be managed as a 100% consumptive (i.e., kill) pursuit in which shoot and release is prohibited and nonretrieval of shot fish is accounted for.

Centenarian lifespans of three freshwater fish species in Arizona reveal the exceptional longevity of the buffalofishes (Ictiobus)

“…However, since both black and orange spots generally do not begin appearing until the approximate age of 40 years 16 , this enhanced ability to identify individual buffalofishes is likely not applicable to younger age buffalofishes < 40 years. For example, in some systems, younger age (< 40 years) buffalofishes are common as of the 2020s 17 , 19 . However, like what has been found in Apache Lake, there are other contemporary populations discovered where buffalofish > 40 years old compose the vast majority of a given population 16 , 40 .…”

“…However, like what has been found in Apache Lake, there are other contemporary populations discovered where buffalofish > 40 years old compose the vast majority of a given population 16 , 40 . Furthermore, it is unknown if relatively young populations today could become proportionately old in a few decades, especially since buffalofishes are known to exhibit highly irregular recruitment 16 , 17 , 19 , 40 . Thus, the ability to identify buffalofish individuals through natural age spots likely has broad utility if high quality photographs are taken.…”

“…Age readers have experience dissecting, processing, and age-scoring thousands of buffalofish otoliths. Otoliths have been age validated for bigmouth buffalo in multiple ways following recommendations for thorough age validation 17 . Long-lived individuals were age-validated within and across individuals using bomb radiocarbon dating 16 , and early growth annuli were validated using edge analysis 19 .…”

“…Fish Commission succeeded and began officially rearing buffalofishes in hatcheries and rearing ponds in the 1910s to supplement the severely declining commercial fishery of buffalofishes 9 – 15 . Despite these historic efforts for the commercial fishery and rising buffalofish sport fisheries of the twenty-first century 16 , 17 , buffalofishes are virtually unmanaged (both commercially and recreationally) across most of their USA range today 16 , 18 – 21 .…”