RELEASING ROCK FISH

[Dominick]

Hello everyone.  Here is a BD Outdoors video on recompressing rockfish.  Dominick

http://www.bdoutdoors.com/story/rockfish-pressure-video/

[Killerbug]

Great stuff, thanks for posting.

[Alto Mare]

Nice video Dominick, much better than stabbing it to death.

[Dominick]

Nice video Dominick, much better than stabbing it to death.

No No Sal:  You don't stab the fish to kill it, you stab it to puncture the bladder which equalizes the air pressure.    The only thing is it does not work.  Thus your comment is most apropos.    Dominick

[Keta]

I'm on the board of OCEAN and this is one of our main objectives.

http://oceaned.org/stress.html

http://oceaned.org/files/Release_Methods.pdf

http://oceaned.org/rockfish.html

[Irish Jigger]

We have the same problems with wrasse. Some anglers use a device similar to the RoKlees  (as shown on the video) to return them safely.
http://www.oceaneyephoto.com/photo_411410.html

[Keta]

Here's another video on barotrauma and release.

[day0ne]

Strange. NOAA has this for the west coast but requires you to have deinflating needles and dehookers on the Gulf Coast for reef fish (snapper, etc)

[Keta]

In Oregon it's not a requirement.

[lawaia]

Out here, there are a couple of proven methods for releasing fish brought up from the depths.  One is venting which, as has been pointed out, may just be akin to saving the fish from dying from barotrauma by instead stabbing it to death.  The other method requires no venting, just quickly sending it back down to the depths, similar to putting a diver with the bends into a recompression chamber.  This second method is called the "drop-shot" method; it's quite similar to that in one of the links that Lee posted above.  To learn more about it, check out this link, the second page:

http://www.wpcouncil.org/bottomfish/Documents/200705_Closure/BF_Releasing_Methods.pdf

Aloha.

[jonathan.han]

Here it goes again, the stabbing to death vs. descending debate. I work on a charter boat for part of the year that targets local rockfish. The biggest problem is that most people trying to use a venting needle don't know how to do it properly. Stabbing aimlessly will kill, inadequately ventilate, or completely miss the air bladder altogether. I was shown how to do it since there are times when I have to help 20 people pull up all of their gear, unhook canaries, and vent them all before we setup the next drift so I can gaff and untangle lines.

Descending tools are helpful in releasing all rockfish successfully. Mind you, I'd say almost all the boats out of Half Moon Bay release rockfish rockfish successfully. There are 2 boats that are shady, I won't say which ones though. Most of the boats out of the gate, sad to say, are not very effective in release methods.

Even with descenders, fish fall off the securing hook when being dropped pover the side. I've seen NOAA researchers fail to descend fish and vent properly. Like anything else, it takes finesse and good hand-eye coordination. I would suggest that most private boaters and sportfishermen to use descenders instead of a venting tool since it takes practice and proper teaching to vent effectively, just like drawing blood from a vein. It is a surgical procedure that people should not attempt haphazardly on a moving boat while lacking adequate balance(sealegs).

[wallacewt]

same thing with guys using the iki jima method.
better with a donger(mini  baseball bat)
and hit the fish on the head if you are going to eat it.

[Keta]

same thing with guys using the iki jima method.
better with a donger(mini  baseball bat)
and hit the fish on the head if you are going to eat it.

Yup

[Bryan Young]

Well said Jonathan

[Joel.B]

I used to live-trap Sheepshead in Mexico, for sale at live fish markets in SoCal.

We'd deflate them as soon as we got them aboard and into the tanks they'd go. They'd stay alive in our holding tanks for weeks until we had enough to truck them up to Los Angeles. We had a special jig/cradle to hold them in while we deflate them, made it much easier and more consistent.  The cradle was basically two  pieces of 2x6 screwed together to make a V that was about 20 inches long