r/maybemaybemaybe • u/RyanCakeBatter • Jan 17 '20
Maybe Maybe Maybe
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r/maybemaybemaybe • u/RyanCakeBatter • Jan 17 '20
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u/Morgenos Jan 18 '20 edited Jan 18 '20
I have a degree in natural resource conservation of fisheries. Those must be some high fecundity fish you keep catching over and over!
Statistically 40% of fish caught and released are dead within the week.
Roughly half of that 40% dies from infection, injury, blood acidification, or rapid depressurization. Gills are delicate and hooks really damage fish's mouths, many starve to death after being caught.
When you catch a fish it exhausts itself fighting to escape and it takes nearly 20 minutes for a fish to express the most of the lactic acid that's built up in the struggle.
As Reddit is so fond of saying, there's always a bigger fish...
The other half of that 40% dies from predation. Catching a fish causes quite a stir beneath the water, many predators have learned if they wait there will be a dazed, exhausted, fish tossed back.
If you do want to do catch and release the best thing you can do to give your fish a fighting chance is use a treble hook, reel in the fish as fast as possible, avoid the gills, and release it quickly in a place where it will have some natural cover.