Discard mortality rates of Red Snapper after barotrauma and hook trauma: Insights from using acoustic telemetry in the U.S. South Atlantic

Details

• Journal Title:
  North American Journal of Fisheries Management
• Personal Author:
  Rudershausen, Paul J. ; Runde, Brendan J. ; Tharp, Ryan M. ; Merrell, Jeffery H. ; Bacheler, Nathan M. ; Patterson, William F. ; Buckel, Jeff A.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; SEFSC (Southeast Fisheries Science Center)
• Description:
  We studied discard mortality of Red Snapper Lutjanus campechanus, a reef species that experiences barotrauma and hook trauma in its U.S. hook-and-line fisheries. Annual numbers of discarded Red Snapper far exceed those harvested in federal fisheries management regions, a phenomenon that emphasizes the importance of quantifying discard fates. To estimate discard mortality, three-dimensional movement data were collected using acoustic telemetry tags and a 3-km2 array of receivers deployed in 2019 and 2023 at a natural reef area (38 m deep) off North Carolina. Release treatments were jaw-hooked or deep-hooked fish; all fish were returned to depth with a recompression device. We assigned a fate for each released Red Snapper based on movement profiles revealed by the acoustic detection data; fates included discard mortality, lost tag, emigrated/harvested, or alive within the array when the receivers were retrieved. A Kaplan–Meier survivorship analysis was used to estimate the rates of discard survival for each release treatment. Our study provides estimates of discard mortality for Red Snapper at a depth where the species is often captured in U.S. South Atlantic commercial and recreational fisheries. Our estimate of discard mortality for deep-hooked Red Snapper is among the highest published rates for fish in this release condition and demonstrates that deeply hooked Red Snapper will likely die.
• Keywords:
  • Discard mortality
  • Red Snapper
  • Barotrauma
  • Hook trauma
• Source:
  North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 2025, 45, 270–282
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1093/najfmt/vqaf012
• Format:
  PDF
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Atlantic Ocean
• License:
  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Rights Information:
  CC BY-NC
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/70982/noaa_70982_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.21 MB]
• Collection(s):
  National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bb40250bbf10a4bc796430f63640824a01f8fcf2f242549a8c23962aa2a3e0b2926a8b05fd9278cb0f4ff03f5f51b27dd48a64597727d8557ebd747a4ab8f1c0