MS Tourney - Decisions To Be Made

[agsurfr]

There are many variables which seem to affect mortality of caught and released striped bass. But even the highly scientific approaches are subject to skepticism due to necessary methodology and factors which cannot or were not controlled for, salinity, temp both air and water, season, hook type and location, length of fight, bait types, handling time and treatment and more....still these studies involve placing fish in tanks and pens for continued observation after the catch. Not the same as watching them swim away. Cleary there is a lot that goes into the hopper and still we cannot know exact numbers for C & R. But a fish on a scale at the shop is dead. There is no formula or basis to know how many were caught and returned before the angler decided that it was time to weigh one. The fish on the scale could have been the first fish caught or the 20th. God forbid the angler keeps several and culls the dead fish killing several but weighing one. Kill tournaments do produce an incentive for those who are less than honorable. It has been done before.

C& R has been shown in to help manage fish populations and maintain population health especially for trout. Prolly where it has been studied most.

Catching a fish places it at risk. We need to minimize those risks by behaving responsibly throughout the process. C & R is one way to do this. Its certainly a good place to start.
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