Walleye Responses to Barotrauma Relief Treatments for Catch-and-Release Angling: Short-Term Changes to Condition and Behavior

Barotrauma causes stress and impairment in fish and can cause mortality after catch and release. Relief of barotrauma symptoms is necessary to reduce mortality, but we currently know little about sublethal effects associated with relief methods. Here, we assess the condition and behavior of tournament-caught Walleye Sander vitreus with barotrauma by using three popular relief methods: 1) swim bladder venting, 2) deep-water release (descending), and 3) livewell reorientation with fin weights. In a short-term ex situ experiment, 50% of untreated fish with barotrauma did not recover sufficiently to be released after 20 h. Fin weighting immediately improved condition by enabling fish to regain correct orientation; however, only 53% of fin-weighted fish recovered sufficiently to be released. All vented fish were negatively buoyant, but 73% were releasable after the holding period. In a concurrent in situ study, acoustic telemetry showed that Walleye without barotrauma (controls) made variable postrelease movements (total distance: 5.1-27.6 km), descended fish behaved similarly to controls (4.7-28.6 km), and vented fish made the shortest movements (2.6-16.7 km). However, there were no statistically significant differences in distance metrics among groups. Control and descended fish used larger areas and volumes of the lake than vented fish. Descended fish also used significantly deeper depths than vented fish, and control fish were intermediate in the depth used. Telemetry did not indicate mortality of any fish in the in situ study. Our data suggest that without treatment, mortality of Walleye with barotrauma could be as high as 50%. Fin weighting is not an effective catch-and-release aid for Walleye with moderate-to-severe barotrauma, and swim bladder venting may alter short-term, postrelease movements and habitat use. The consequences of these short-term changes to Walleye behavior from a fisheries management perspective are unclear. Eliminating catch-and-release angling in deep water is the best means of managing barotrauma in Walleye. If deep-water angling cannot be avoided, we recommend noninvasive descending over venting.