From American Saltwater Guides Association:
Release Mortality Update!
COMPREHENSIVE SCIENCE FROM MASS DMF SHOWS RELEASE MORTALITY IS ROUGHLY HALF OF HISTORICAL RATE
This has major implications for striped bass management.
For 30 years, managers have used a 9% “release mortality” rate for striped bass — a number pulled from a 1990s study that even its author said shouldn’t guide management. Now, new research from Massachusetts DMF is set to change everything. Using telemetry tags and data from over 8,000 fish, this comprehensive research finds that release mortality is closer to 4–5%, and under 2% for anglers fishing single hook artificials or flies.
That means responsible catch-and-release anglers — the same ones who’ve been vilified for “playing with fish” — aren’t the core of the problem. Our community held the line valiantly. Now, we finally have what may be the most comprehensive release-mortality research ever done for a saltwater species, and it tells a very different story.
So, where does that leave us?
1. Release mortality is roughly half of what we’ve been told for decades.
2. No-targeting closures are scientifically indefensible with this information.
3. Education remains essential. Anglers can and should reduce multiple treble hooks, shorten fight times, be wary of water temperature and minimize time out of water—especially for big fish.
A debt of gratitude to Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries for this comprehensive, multi-year effort to better understand and effectively manage the most critical inshore fishery on the Atlantic Coast!
