Short-term behavioural impacts of air-exposure in three species of recreationally angled freshwater fish

Effectiveness of barotrauma mitigation methods in ice‐angled bluegill and black crappie

“…We found little effect of species or mitigation method on post‐release activity (indexed as ODBA) of bluegill and black crappie, both of which showed near‐identical patterns of post‐release movement, with the highest locomotor activity in the first minute after post‐release, followed by reduced activity, as in similar studies (Bieber et al, 2022; LaRochelle et al, 2021, 2022). Biologgers have increasingly been used to assess short‐term behavior of stressed animals, particularly for fish after catch‐and‐release angling (Brownscombe et al, 2013; Chhor et al, 2022; Holder et al, 2020; Landsman et al, 2015). Much of this work focused on effects of air exposure, particularly how air exposure and water temperature interact to affect fish movement and habitat use after release (LaRochelle et al, 2021, 2022).…”

“…Two-way ANOVA was used to determine if capture depth differed between species or mitigation method, or if a significant interaction between mitigation and capture method was present for fish-This was done separately for biologger and arena-assessed fish. For fish assessed with biologgers, the effect of post-release time (during the monitoring period), species, and barotrauma mitigation approach on ODBA was tested with a linear mixed-effects model using the lmer command in the lme4 package (Bates et al, 2015), an approach that has been used for these types of studies previously (Bieber et al, 2022;Chhor et al, 2022;LaRochelle et al, 2021LaRochelle et al, , 2022. Fish length was confounded with species (black crappie were significantly larger than bluegill, t-test, p < 0.001), so was not included in the model.…”

“…Post-release behavior and success in re-descending of captured fish was assessed using biologgers equipped with a tri-axial accelerometer, pressure, and temperature sensors (Axy 5XS; TechnoSmArt; Guidonia Montecelio, Italy; 20 × 10 × 6 mm, 4 g weight in air) (Chhor et al, 2022;LaRochelle et al, 2021LaRochelle et al, , 2022. The biologger was set to record in all three axes at 25 Hz with an 8-bit resolution and 8 G-Scale.…”

“…Biologgers are small, do not appreciably inhibit fish movement, and provide detailed data on fish movement, depth, and temperature selection. For catch‐and‐release angling, post‐release fish behavior has been quantified using biologgers for a variety of species, including bonefish Albula vulpes (Brownscombe et al, 2013), northern pike Esox lucius (Bieber et al, 2022; Chhor et al, 2022), and black bass Micropterus spp. (LaRochelle et al, 2021; LaRochelle et al, 2022).…”

hysiological and Behavioural Responses of Lake Trout to Catch-And-Release Angling

“…Monitoring after release is especially difficult due to a lack of pre-established telemetry infrastructure in many northern lakes in addition logistical difficulties associated with ice cover. General best practices must continue to be promoted for this fishery such as preventing air exposure, limiting fight times, and careful handling upon capture (Brownscombe et al 2017;Danylchuk et al 2018;Brownscombe et al 2022;Chhor et al 2022a). Wider implementation of commercially available descending devices may combat fish mortality by returning fish to a depth that allows them to relieve barotrauma pressure (Curtis et al 2015;Bellquist et al 2019;Davies et al 2022;Louison et al 2023).…”