I think it's been documented that waste products can actually begin to cook the muscle mass of some tunoids during a long fight. Tunoids are basically all red muscle mass.
It's a real boot in the rear to catch an albie on light tackle, but very few of those fish survive a release. Most people won't eat one, so it's a total waste of a good, noble fish. I stopped chasing albies on the Vineyard long before they took them out of the daily prize structure in the Derby.
I can relate one instance that I witnessed--one day, we were fishing at Pogue Light for blues, using fairly heavy tackle. A friend from CT hooked a very small albie. Maybe 4-5 pounds. He was using 20# test on a medium 9' rod. From hook up to release, the fish was probably on the line for less than 5 minutes. He grabbed the tail, unhooked it, gave it a few back and forth passes to get water flowing over its gills, and let go. It swam 10' and sank right to the bottom, and stayed there
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