Catch-and-release angling mortality of south-eastern AustralianPomatomus saltatrix

Abstract

Pomatomus saltatrix (Pomatomidae) is important to several recreational fisheries around the world, most of which regulate exploitation via legal size limits and quotas. However, the inherent assumption of minimal impacts to released P. saltatrix has only been tested across limited and mostly planned angling scenarios, with variable results. This study contributes to the available information by assessing the fate of conventionally angled-and-released P. saltatrix off New South Wales, Australia. Eighty-five fish (24-54 cm total length, TL) were caught from surf beaches, rocks and boats and released into cages (with 60 controls), where they were monitored for 10 days. The mortality among angled fish was 8%, all of which occurred within 24 hours. The few deaths were attributed to gill hooking and/or excessive hook damage, and most might be mitigated by cutting the line rather than removing hooks. The results support releasing the angled sizes of eastern Australian P. saltatrix and, along with a review of earlier data, facilitate the prediction of impacts to individuals caught and released among unstudied populations.

The effect of artificial lure type and environment conditions on the short‐time post‐release mortality of two recreational fished Luciobarbus species

“…For this purpose, three anglers with the same level of experience in recreational fishing (10-20 years) were selected from Elazığ Amateur and Sportive Angling Club. They were also educated and trained about how to handle the angled fish for assessing short-term mortality and how to make a record of different information that included fish capture time, hooking location (upper jaw, lower jaw, both upper and lower jaw), bleeding (non-bleeding, stage-1 minor bleeding, and stage-2 heavy bleeding), fish total length (cm), and fish weight (g) (Atessahin, 2019;Broadhurst et al, 2012;Delle Palme et al, 2016).…”