Physiological effects of catch-and-release angling on freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens)
Introduction
Recreational fisheries occur when fish are captured but not used as a primary source of nutrition for the fisher and are not sold or traded in any markets (European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission (EIFAC, 2008; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 2011). Practiced across the world, an estimated 11.5 % of the global population participates in recreational fisheries (Cooke and Cowx, 2004; Davie and Kopf, 2006). Because many partake in recreational angling, it is also economically important; for example, Canadian resident anglers spent $2.5 billion on direct fishing expenditures in 2015 (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2019). Due to its popularity, recreational fisheries can be at risk of collapse, particularly if fisheries stakeholders lack research into the social and ecological processes that are involved with their fishery (Post et al., 2002, 2008; Cooke and Cowx, 2004; Post, 2013).
Catch-and-release (C&R) angling is a practice that has been adopted by anglers to prevent population declines in recreational fisheries (Cowx, 2002; Cooke and Cowx, 2006; Brownscombe et al., 2014). Either because of a conservation ethic, morals, or regulations, anglers release fish back to the waterbody of capture with the intention that the fish will survive and contribute to recruitment (Arlinghaus et al., 2007). Despite its conservation goals, research is still lacking to support C&R angling as a sustainable practice for all recreationally caught fishes (Cooke and Suski, 2005; Brownscombe et al., 2017). In particular, studies that focus on the individual-level impacts of C&R angling are needed to provide species-specific recommendations (termed ‘best practices’) for how anglers may improve upon their angling and handling techniques to promote the long-term viability of populations (Cooke and Suski, 2005; Madliger et al., 2016; Brownscombe et al., 2017).
There are several ways that C&R angling events impact fish, and acquiring this knowledge for different species can assist with the development of best practices (see Brownscombe et al., 2017). The hooking of a fish causes tissue damage and bleeding, and infection is possible, especially when a fish is hooked in a location other than its jaws (Muoneke and Childress, 1994; Bartholomew and Bohnsack, 2005). The retrieval of the fish (i.e., ‘the fight’) causes energetic exhaustion (Wood et al., 1983; Ferguson and Tufts, 1992) leading to physiological changes and an increase in oxygen demand that may lead to delayed mortality upon release (Muoneke and Childress, 1994; Davis, 2002; Davie and Kopf, 2006). Netting and handling of the fish (i.e., de-hooking and ‘the photo op’) leads to further tissue damage and removal of slime that can cause infection (Barthel et al., 2003; Brownscombe et al., 2017), and air exposure causes gill lamellae to collapse decreasing the amount of gas exchange possible (Ferguson and Tufts, 1992). Ultimately the air exposure during handling can lead to lower levels of oxygen in the blood and causes additional physiological changes (Ferguson and Tufts, 1992; LeBlanc et al., 2010). Furthermore, the entire angling process can culminate in whole-body changes to behaviour (e.g., reflex impairment; Raby et al., 2012) and the degree to which a fish is affected by the stressors can be interactive with other factors (e.g., body length, water temperature; Meka and McCormick, 2005). Many researchers have focused on studying how C&R events impact fishes regarding hooking mortality, injury, reflex impairment and physiology (e.g., Ferguson and Tufts, 1992; Muoneke and Childress, 1994; Arlinghaus et al., 2007; Raby et al., 2012), which is useful for designing best practices for capturing and releasing fish (Cooke and Suski, 2005; Wikelski and Cooke, 2006; Madliger et al., 2016) and changing social norms in recreational fisheries (Danylchuk et al., 2018).
Best practices ideally minimize harm in handled fish and physiological indicators are useful metrics to assess the severity of the disruption to homeostasis caused by an angling event (Ferguson and Tufts, 1992; Pankhurst and Dedual, 1994; Wilkie et al., 1996). When homeostasis is disrupted, catecholamines and corticosteroids are released into the circulatory system and several ‘downstream’ changes occur, such as the release of glucose and alterations to the ionic balance within blood (Wendelaar Bonga, 1997). Examples of physiological disturbances exhibited in fish during or after an angling event include increased plasma cortisol, blood glucose, plasma lactate, tissue lactate, and reduction in blood pH (Wood, 1991; Wendelaar Bonga, 1997; Arlinghaus et al., 2007; McLean et al., 2016; Lawrence et al., 2018). Additionally, monitoring reflexes (i.e., innate and automatic responses to stimuli) can be used to determine fish vitality following C&R events (Davis, 2010; McLean et al., 2016). Reflex impairment is easily measured in a field setting, and is useful in predicting post-release mortality because lacking certain reflexes indicates a compromised physiological state (Raby et al., 2012; McLean et al., 2016). Overall, if physiological consequences and reflex impairment are quantified, they can be used as indicators of immediate fish health following a C&R angling event, and are therefore useful metrics when developing best practices.
Though much has been learned about the physiological responses of angling in fish, applying physiological research to fishes broadly to create best practices is a challenge because data from previous studies is difficult to generalize for several reasons (Gingerich and Suski, 2012). Firstly, a major influence on physiological disturbances in fish is temperature, as fish angled in warmer temperatures display greater physiological disturbances (Gustaveson et al., 1991; Thompson et al., 2002) and higher mortality rates (Wilkie et al., 1996, 1997; Wilde, 1998; Wilde et al., 2000; Dempson et al., 2002; Thorstad et al., 2003; Arlinghaus et al., 2007; Gingerich et al., 2007) so environmental context is important when assessing fish responses to C&R angling. Secondly, angler behaviour can also influence the degree to which fish experience physiological effects of C&R because both length of time spent fighting against the line and time exposed to air have implications on post-release vitality of fishes (Cooke and Suski, 2005; Meka and McCormick, 2005; Schreer et al., 2005; Suski et al., 2007; Arlinghaus et al., 2009; Cooke et al., 2017; Louison et al., 2017a). Therefore, it is important to experimentally vary time spent reeling in fish and time that the fish is exposed to air to gain a complete understanding of the physiological effects of C&R angling. Thirdly, morphological characteristics such as mouth shape, teeth type and pattern are also different across species (Venkatesh, 2003). These differences may pose challenges for anglers handling them, and studies on one species may not apply to another due to these differences in characteristics. A species that is unique in several ways and is targeted by anglers is freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens). To date, no study has characterised the individual-level consequences of C&R angling on freshwater drum in any context.
Freshwater drum are vulnerable to C&R angling. Drum grow large and are treated as a ‘trophy fish’ species throughout their range (e.g., Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 2020; Travel Manitoba, 2020). Additionally, freshwater drum are released as bycatch while anglers are attempting to catch other species that can be targeted with similar gear and tackle used for capturing freshwater drum (e.g., channel catfish [Ictalarus punctatus] and walleye [Sander vitreus]). Simply applying other physiological findings to the species to understand the potential consequences of C&R angling is difficult, as freshwater drum have a large, uniquely round body shape, large scales, teeth in many rows including well-developed pharyngeal teeth, and they are the only freshwater species within the family Sciaenidae (Scott and Crossman, 1973). The morphological characteristics pose challenges for hook retrieval and removal from nets, potentially leading to longer air exposure and injury from prolonged handling time. Additionally, severe hooking injuries such as swallowing the baited hook are more likely to occur as the pharyngeal teeth are located in the back of the mouth next to the esophageal tissue (Beckwith and Rand, 2005). Lastly, because freshwater drum are a long-lived species (maximum published age of 71 years; Pereira et al., 1995; Jacquemin et al., 2015), determining the potential for physiological and reflex responses and C&R-induced mortality is important for fisheries management (Cooke and Suski, 2005; Davie and Kopf, 2006), as populations of long-lived fish species can be more severely impacted by fisheries interactions (Schroeder and Love, 2002; Cooke and Cowx, 2006). Generally, there is a knowledge gap related to the consequences of C&R angling on freshwater drum, and it must be filled to support the development of best practices for this species.
The objective of the study was to quantify physiological and reflex responses to variable C&R angling practices in freshwater drum across seasons. We hypothesized that longer C&R angling events (i.e., longer fight time and air exposure) during warmer time periods would result in biological consequences for freshwater drum, which has been shown in a study on their salt water conspecific, red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus; Gallman et al., 1999). We predicted that fish that undergo longer C&R angling events will have higher rates of injury and reflex impairment, higher levels of blood glucose, plasma cortisol, plasma lactate, and lower levels of blood pH, and that greater changes in these parameters will occur during the warmer sampling period.
Section snippets
Study site
Sampling occurred near Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada (50.127881°, −96.879764°) on Treaty 1 Territory along the Red River, also known as Miscousipi in Cree (meaning “Red Water River”). Angling occurred during two seasons: spring (May 26–June 1, 2019) and summer (July 10–July 23, 2019); and, mean water temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) for both seasons were 15.9 ± 1.2 °C and 10.14 ± 0.29 mg/L, respectively, in the spring, and 24.8 ± 0.8 °C and 8.30 ± 1.02 mg/L, respectively in the summer. Water
Results
Forty-eight freshwater drum were angled and sampled in total between both seasons (28 in the spring, 20 in the summer). The injury assessment revealed that 33 freshwater drum were non-critically hooked in the mouth and two non-critically hooked fish experienced slight bleeding. Fifteen fish were critically hooked in the throat and two experienced bleeding (one slight, one flowing). Additionally, five mortalities were observed following a critical hooking in the throat. Reflex impairment did not
Physiological responses and RAMP
Freshwater drum in our study experienced elevated plasma cortisol, plasma glucose, and plasma lactate following an angling event, which is consistent with what is known for other teleost fishes (e.g., Suski et al., 2003; Thompson et al., 2008; Pankhurst, 2011; Cooke et al., 2013; Lawrence et al., 2018). When comparing differences in physiological parameters between the 0 min and 30 min sampling times, significant changes for most physiological variables were observed, indicating a disruption in
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Jamie T. Card: Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Visualization. Caleb T. Hasler: Conceptualization, Supervision, Investigation, Writing - review & editing, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This research was carried out on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Dakota, Dene, Métis, and Oji-Cree Nations (Treaty 1 Territory). Funding support for this research was provided through an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell master’s scholarship award held by J. T. Card, an NSERC discovery grant held by C. T. Hasler, and a University of Winnipeg start-up grant held by C. T. Hasler. We extend a heartfelt thank you to both Anne-Laure Card and Dan Card for hosting us while we carried
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