Blown Swim Bladers

[Sprinter]

Hi all,

I am not sure if this would work over here but on the Anglers Afloat site there is currently a good discussion going regarding returning fish with blown bladders.

 

someone posted this short post, have you heard of it before, or even used one?

 

It might be an idea for our wreckers and deap sea experts

 

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There was a tool you could buy to assist with releasing deep caught fish but cant find it now but this youtube video shows same principle using a special weight

 

 

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[Jsplace]

Did some reef fishing over in Oz a few years ago and they all puncture the bladder with a spike before release. Seemed to work too, fish always just swam straight down.

[Newboy]

With the bladder punctured, the fish can go down but can't inflat it to come up again.... not unless the bladder can self heal.

[Graham Nash]

Although I have obviously dragged fish up and thrown them back with bulging eyes etc. I didn't realise there was something that could be done to help them. I will definately look into this.

 

After seeing the above link, I watched other videos on youtube and one of them showed the fish being put into a crab pot and lowered down, it simply swam out when it got to the bottom.

 

Pretty basic stuff but it must be worth it if it helps to save unwanted fish.

[Rob]

 

I think the bit that is sticking out is the inside of the fishes stomach. Can't be good to puncture the stomach and swimbladder.

 

I would be nice to return Pollack when you have a box load and their such good fun to catch! (or they are bycatch of other fishing)

 

Rob

[charlieannear]

I'm sure puncturing the swimbladder will help the fish swim down... all the way to the bottom, where it will stay until it can somehow reinflate it's punctured swimbladder. A bit like a depthcharged submarine?

[Jsplace]

I was told that they are pretty much self sealing and can be inflated again very quickly, and after a quick google have found US patent application for one of the spikes they use.

 

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6065238/description.html

 

Like I said, they all seem to do it in Australia and they tend to look after their fisheries alot better than we do here so I am guessing that some reseach has been done to find out if its either a help or harmful to the fish.

 

Personally I have never tried it and probably wouldn't unless I had had some tuition in doing it first. The guys I saw doing it were very practised at it indeed. I think I would be scared of either poking the wrong bit or pushing the spike in too far....

[Sprinter]

It was interesting that they had done some research regarding the recatch rate of degassed (punctured swim bladder) when compared to this method i think i recall being 4 times higher.

 

That means that not all fish die when the bladders aer degassed, intersting all the same

[Newboy]

Or what about fish like ling when its stomach turns inside out, resulted in a penis looking thingy sticking out of its mouth.....

It's pretty rock solid because the liver and other internal organs are now inside the thing sticking out of its mouth.

[petesnr]

There are a number of points to make.

Firstly--anything is better than seeing a good fish float off down the tide and almost certainly die.

Secondly if you consider the food that many predatory fish eat it often has spines and spikes on it so it is likely that puncture wounds are something that many fish are capable of recovering from.

I have a recollection of researching this topic in the past and the spike can be pushed through the shoulder of the fish behind the gills where the swimbladder sits at the top of the body cavity. If you carefully open a fish you have taken home it is possible to identify the position of the swimbladder and from this work out where to puncture the fish to release the pressure in the swimbladder.

The swimbladder itself is inflated by gas coming out of solution from within the blood vessels around into the cavity of the bladder and is presumably regulated by gas being reabsorbed in to the blood. this mechanism should still work even with a puncture wound--there's nowhere for the gas to escape from inside the fish.

Suggest dissecting fish then having a go with a live one. Blown eyes on pout probably means curtains for them anyway but wrasse, cod and pollack might have a chance.

Peter

[codpiece]

Slow down your retrieval. ???? Derek

[TomBettle]

As nearly all of my fishing is deep water wrecking I want to be able to return some of my fish once I have had my fill.

I've thought about investing in one of the release tools for some time and have even started talks with one manufacturer about selling their tools here. The problem I see is marketing the concept and persuading anglers this is a good idea.

Believe me when I say that us anglers with some conservation minded ideas are really quite minority when it comes to the offshore brigade. Many are only interested in absolutely packing out the freezer.

 

Tom

[Graham Nash]

Keep me informed Tom, I rarely catch anything worth keeping so most of mine go back. If I could give them a helping hand towards survival it has to be worth it.

 

Considering the expense we have all gone to already (with all sorts of electronics to help us locate the fish) i cant imagine this sort of additional kit would break the bank, and if it results in more fish being returned alive it is in our best interests as well as the fish.