Journal
FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AND ECOLOGY
Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages 103-113Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2400.2007.00530.x
Keywords
barotrauma; commercial fishing; discard mortality; gut hooking
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Minimum size limits may be ineffective for reef fishes because they often sustain barotrauma when caught from deep (> 20 m) waters. A study was undertaken in conjunction with hook-and-line commercial fishermen to calculate discard percentages and evaluate potential release mortality of eight economically important species: black sea bass, Centropristis striata (Linnaeus), red grouper, Epinephelus morio (Valenciennes), snowy grouper, Epinephelus niveatus (Valenciennes), gag, Mycteroperca microlepis (Goode and Bean), scamp, Mycteroperca phenax (Jordan and Swain), vermilion snapper, Rhomboplites aurorubens (Cuvier), white grunt, Haemulon plumeri (Lacepede) and red porgy, Pagrus pagrus (Linnaeus). Fishing with baited hook and line occurred in 2004 and 2005 in Onslow Bay, NC, in waters 19-150 m deep. Sub-legal discard rates were 15% for vermilion snapper, 25% for red porgy, 7% for red grouper, 33% for gag, 35% for scamp and 12% for black sea bass. Although mortality based on post-release behaviour was relatively low, higher mortalities estimated from models incorporating hooking location and depth of capture suggest that minimum size limits may not provide the population benefits intended by management in the North Carolina reef fishery.
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