144th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society

August 17 - 21, 2014

The management of many recreational and commercial fisheries faces continued challenges due to overfishing, bycatch, and slow stock rebuilding processes.  The NOAA Fisheries 2012 Status of Stocks report identified several important recreational and commercial fish stocks as overfished.  These identified stocks are characterized by high levels of both discards and concomitant high levels of release mortality.  The term “release mortality” refers to the rate of mortality of a fish after it has been discarded.  This rate is thought to be a function of many factors including: handling, air exposure, thermal stress, and injuries resulting from the capture process.  Release mortality can be immediate, due to severe injury or post-release predation, or it can be longer-term.  For example, as a result of starvation if a fish’s internal organs have been damaged by fishing.  “Barotrauma” can also contribute to release mortality. This results from a change in pressure as deep-water physoclistous fish species are rapidly brought to the surface. Given the potential magnitude of bycatch mortality across many species and fisheries, scientists, managers and fishermen, have worked collaboratively to evaluate and quantify this source of mortality.   Ultimately, research results help develop and promulgate best management practices designed to reduce post-release mortality, reduce overall fishing mortality, and lead to increased fishing opportunities. 

This symposium will present efforts of U.S. and Canadian researchers to understand the process of release mortality in recreational and commercial fisheries that ultimately result in the use of effective fishing and fish-handling practices.  This symposium also will describe efforts to incorporate improved release mortality rate estimates in the stock assessment process.  By presenting current, cutting-edge research on release mortality, which supports management in both local and international contexts, this symposium supports the 2014 AFS theme of moving from fisheries research to management and thinking and acting locally and globally.