Each year, sport fishermen unintentionally kill millions of
deep-water fish they don't want or can't keep. These fish die even though they
are handled gently and released quickly. The reason: a condition called
barotrauma, which divers know as 'the bends', NPR reports.
The problem occurs in fish with a swim bladder, an internal
balloon that helps them control their buoyancy. When a fish is pulled up,
"that balloon rapidly begins to expand as the pressure from the water
decreases," says Chris Lowe, a marine scientist at Cal State Long Beach.
So by the time a deep water fish reaches the surface, he
says, "its eyes could be popped out of its head, its stomach is pushed out
of its mouth and it looks absolutely horrific."
Fish experiencing barotrauma are often unable to swim and
look like they're dead. But they're not. Lowe discovered this about 10 years
ago while trying to implant tracking devices in California rockfish.
These rockfish live hundreds of feet below the surface,
which is a tricky place to perform minor surgery. So Lowe's team brought the
fish to the surface, implanted a tracking device, and then quickly sent them
back down in cages.
Two days later, "we brought the cages back up and all
the fish were alive," Lowe says.
Other experiments confirmed that deep water fish could
survive a trip to the surface — if fisherman had a way to send them back in a
hurry. The question was how. Scientists didn't know.
"So it was really fishermen that came up with many of
the ideas on how to get these fish back down," Lowe says.
The result is a wide range of so-called descending devices.
Some are just upside-down milk crates, while others are commercial products
with a pressure-sensitive clamp that releases at a specified depth.
What Lowe is trying to do now is make sure people who fish
learn how to use these devices. And that is why he and Tom Raftican, president
of The Sportfishing Conservancy, have joined a dozen sport fishermen in
California as they head out into the Pacific aboard a commercial vessel named
the City of Long Beach.
When the boat reaches a reef known for its rockfish, we drop
anchor and a dozen anglers bait their hooks. One of them is Nick Makshanoff,
who's been fishing a lot since he retired a few years ago. "If there's
water, I fish," he says. "Fresh or salt, bathtubs, oceans, you name
it, I fish."
Like a lot of sport fisherman, Mackshanoff is concerned
about overfishing and bycatch, fish that are caught unintentionally and die.
"Something has to be done," he says, "or 10,
20, 30 years from now there's not going to be any fish. Period."
Mackshanoff has never used a descending device, but he's
seen one on YouTube.
"They were using this for Calico Bass and it was
minimal harm on the fish and quick release back in the ocean again," he
says. "I think it's kind of neat."
As we're talking, another angler reels in a Bocaccio
rockfish that's too small to keep and is showing all the signs of barotrauma.
He hands the fish to Lowe, who clamps its lower lip to a descending device the
size of a pocket knife. Lowe uses a fishing rod to lower the fish, device,
weights and a camera into the water.
Later we watch a video of the rockfish's descent. By the
time it is about 50 feet down the fish's eyes are returning to their sockets
and its stomach is no longer protruding from its mouth. Before long the fish
appears to return to life.
"You can see it kicking, it's trying to swim
away," Lowe says. And then the clamp releases and the fish is gone.
"Another successful release," Lowe says.
The impact of descending devices could be substantial
because there are more than 10 million marine recreational fishermen in the US
who catch more than 345 million fish a year, Raftican says. And these sport
fishermen release nearly two-thirds of the fish they reel in, he says
So The Sportfishing Conservancy has been running workshops
around the nation explaining how and why fishermen should use descending
devices. It's an easy pitch to make, Raftican says, because fisherman want to
preserve their sport.
"I love to fish and I'd like to see my kids and
grandkids out there fishing too," he says.
Read the article HERE.
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