Reviving Fish?

[numbskull]

Originally Posted by Woofish

For years I have been a strong advocate for "Catch and Release".


DEEPLY HOOKED FISH. The corrosive action of the fish's digestive juices and the salt water should get rid of the hook in a short time. Using bronze hooks is the best bet since they will deteriorate quickly. Stainless steel hooks should not be used.

Woofish, although I applaude and support your effort to encourage and facilitate catch and release, I am disappointed to see this misinformation about "digestable hooks" propogated. The mortality rate for different hook types in Striped Bass has been studied (though I cannot locate the reference at the moment, I had the scientific reprint once about 15 years ago). It showed, as you would expect, that biologically inert metals had the lowest mortality rates when hooks are retained in fish. Stainless steel had the LOWEST mortality rate. Cadmium plated hooks had the highest (b/o heavy metal renal toxicity). Bronze was somewhere in between if I recall correctly. Hooks DO NOT corrode out of fish, nor are they digested. They wall off and are rejected by an inflammatory reaction just like a thorn, piece of shrapnel, or other foriegn body would be if impaled in you. While impaled in the fish, the hook leaches metal into the fish's blood, hence the problem with plated hooks. If I can find the reference I will PM it to you.

[Woofish]

Numbskull - Maybe your not a numbskull. You seem to know what you are talking about. I would like to read the report you referenced if you ever find it. I plan to alter the contents of my C&R page. Thanks.

[baldwin]

I've read the same stuff. Cadmium isn't exactly an essential mineral. If you read the CT Hunting laws publication, there's an advisory against eating venison liver because of the cadmium content. I'm sure that deer liver has a small cadmium content (measured in ppm), insignificant compared to that of those hooks. And yes, stainless is pretty inert. That's why it's used in surgical implants.