Halibut release and mortality -- Archive

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Subject: Halibut release and mortality

Author:
Jim Day

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Date Posted: 956883943PDT

There's a good series of posts about Halibut conservation at The Allcoast private boaters board

FloMar the Moderater posted that though people have been donating fish to the stocking program there has been a pretty heavy mortality rate.

Here's one of the Butts that died in captivity.

The fish evidently died of a fungal infection reulting from net injurys, especially to the tail. You can read the thread. Heres a few things that you might want to think about when fishing and releasing butts.

We rarely use our net when releasing fish. We always try to unhook our fish with needle nose pliers without ever touching them. Just lean over the side and unhook them, while their still in the water. Our net does have a half inch mesh, for when we do break it out. Smaller mesh nets are better becuse the do less damage to the fishes skin and fins. A large mesh like one inch moves better through the water but cuts into the fish resulting in damage.

Trap hooks and deep hooksets. I use the trap, a second treble in the back of the bait. I use bronze mustads that are prone to rust. The idea is: if I leave it in the fish it will rust out quickly (if it lives) Contrarty to popular opinion: I think I get less bad hooksets with the trap. I tend to set the hook faster so there is less chance for them to swallow the bait. Deep hooks are bad I try to get them out when I can. I picked up a legal the other day with a very rusty hook half down his throat, that hook had been there for a while. Healthiest flatty I've seen in a long time. (Catalina) Its a pro and con thing. depending where the hook is the fish may or may not make it.

Handling and fungas. The more you handle them the worse it is. Try to touch the fish as little as possible at any rate. Placing a fish in your funky old bait tank doesn't do them a heck of a lot of good either. If your trying to keep fish alive for the stocking program, here's something you might try. There's a product called NovAqua: it's a product designed for the Aquarium industry. Mike works with aquariums for a living (He told me about it). In their words "Nov aqua forms a multi-layerd, protective skin coating on and in the fishes skin,..... adds electrolytes needed for osmotic ballance, detoxifies..... removes metals etc......."
Essentually the stuff puts protective film on the fish that protects it and prevents infection from injury. Stuff is for fresh and salt water.

I know it works because I use it with my Ciclid tank.(yea: I keep a fish tank too....Way too many hobbies) every time I move fish or introduce a new fish. I add a capfull to my fifty Gallon tank. The result no fish loss do to disease injury or trauma. (A common proplem with tanks is disease introduced by new fish).

I think the stuff will make a difference, you can find it at Aquarium supply stores.

So thats my take.
Remember release for the future.

Tight lines Jim

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