MM,
Thanks for taking the time to digest it all and respond to what seemed like one of my more hostile posts. I know what your intent of the article was and support that aspect of it.
I still don't believe the study and would like to read it for myself sometime.
Do you know where I might find a copy?
A couple more questions. How did they determine if the fish survived? How does one follow a specific fish for any length of time? Archival tag? I don't know how you would determine that a fish dies down the road from being weighed sometime days, weeks, months prior.
Also, how many fish were actually studied?
This article makes me think of you often
...every time I see a fishing show hold up a big fish I think of this report. (It is like a bad song I can't get out of my head) This past weekend I watched Jose' Wejabe (sp?) Spanish fly guy catch a large 30# redfish on light tackle in LA. It was held by the gill in the vertical position several times and then weighed on a bogogrip then "released as these are the spawners"...it seemed to swim away with vigor. Also, I saw a tivoed edition of Walkers Cay Chronicles, there he caught a large tarpon and picked up the entire fish by the jaw via a lip gaff, it had to go 100+. It was also released. Then saw Offshore adventure yank a striped marlin out of the water for a photo op with the West Marine winner of some contest. They man handled that fish and it still seemed to swim away OK.
I still think if this were an issue it would have been discovered long before now.
If you can direct me to a copy of that report I would appreciate it.
Thanks