Circle Hooks
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North Carolina BlueprintsUNC-SG-BP-2004-02 North Carolina Sea Grant NC State University Box 8605 Raleigh, NC 27695-8605 Circle Hooks: A Way to Reduce Injury and Mortality in Grouper? Could hook type, hook size and water depth Commercial and recreational fishers often catch decrease the injury and post-release mortality of undersized groupers. There are at least two poten- undersized grouper and bycatch in commercial tial sources of mortality for undersized grouper: fishing? • If the grouper is hooked in the gut, the probabil- A North Carolina Fishery Resource Grant (FRG) ity that the fish will die increases. study (03-FEG-10) compared • If the grouper is caught — circle hook and J-hook perfor- and quickly pulled to the surface mance in a commercial hook- Photo by Alex Ng — from relatively deep water, it and-line grouper fishery. may die as a result of injuries The project demonstrated from decompression associated that circle hooks significantly with an enlarged gas bladder. decrease gut hooking of grou- Hook size and type have been per. Reduced injury likely de- shown to influence the size of fish creases post-release mortality of captured and how fish are undersized fish. The use of hooked. Moreover, the use of an circle hooks also lowers bycatch improper hook size may result in of nontargeted species. catches of undesirable bycatch The results concur with species that are released in an studies elsewhere on a variety of injured state. species that have shown that the The goal of the FRG study location of the hook wound is a was to collect data that managers critical factor influencing the could use to reduce mortality of survival of the released fish. undersized gag and red grouper Additionally, the FRG study and to reduce the bycatch of shows that fishing for grouper in undesirable reef fish. more shallow, near-shore waters The project team set out to: reduces incidents of distended, Nate Bacheler displays a gag grouper. • Examine numbers and sizes or blown, stomachs. of grouper caught in relation to All these benefits come at no additional cost, hook type and size; because circle hooks caught similar numbers and • Collect data on five anatomical hook placements sizes of grouper as J-hooks did. in relation to hook type and size; Background • Determine injury to the fish as a function of hook Many grouper species are overfished — espe- type and water depth. cially species such as red, gag and scamp grouper Methods — because of long life span and late reproduction. Twenty research trips were conducted between Efforts to manage these species in North Carolina May 14, 2003 and Aug. 20, 2003 over Continental include size limits, daily bag limits and closures Shelf waters of North Carolina, between 20 and 60 during periods of spawning aggregation. miles offshore. Under 2004 N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries A normal day of fishing consisted of eight to 10 (DMF) regulations, the legal size of a gag grouper is hours of bottom fishing, plus traveling three to four 24 inches and the legal size of a red and scamp hours to and from fishing grounds. grouper is 20 inches. Fishing time occurred from about 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. during each trip. Typical conditions consisted of species were grouped together in a bycatch cat- winds of 5 to 15 knots and seas of five feet or less. egory because no one species was caught fre- The terminal tackle consisted of the standard 2- quently enough to allow robust statistical analyses. hook, low-high bottom rig using 150-pound test monofilament leader, 2 three-way swivels, and a 16 Results to 20 ounce sinker. A total of 1,249 fish were landed during 20 The four hook treatments were 5/0, 7/0 and 9/0 research trips. The number of fish caught per trip offset J-hooks and a 12/0 circle hook. The research- ranged from 17 to 113 (mean=62.5 fish), and the ers used a Precision auto electric motor attached to number of grouper caught per trip ranged from 3 to a 6/0 Penn reel on a stand-up fishing rod with 130- 60 (mean=28.2 fish). The catch was comprised of pound test braided fishing line. 33 species of fish, but the most numerous six The four hook treatments were fished simulta- species accounted for 85 per cent of the total neously. Hook treatments were assigned randomly catch. to four rods. All fish except sharks and moray eels The three most numerous species caught were were brought on board. As fish were caught, data red grouper, red porgy and Atlantic sharpnose were recorded on species of fish; fork length (mm); sharks. hook type and size; the anatomical position of the hook (jaw, gut, body, eyes or gills); bleeding (yes or • The use of 12/0 circle hooks resulted in signifi- no); stomach distention (yes or no); and water depth. cantly fewer gut-hooked grouper than the use of Analyses 5/0, 7/0 and 9/0 J-hooks. (Fig. A) Certain fish species were combined in the analy- • Only 1 per cent of fish caught on 12/0 circle ses based upon their morphological, anatomical and hooks were gut hooked. ecological similarities in order to increase sample • For all J-hook sizes, 15 per cent were gut- sizes and allow a general understanding of the effect hooked. of hooking on similar groups of fish species. For • Larger hooks catch less bycatch. (Fig. B) example, all grouper species — gag, red, scamp, red • Grouper catch rates and sizes were the same hind, rock hind and Coney groupers — were in- for J-hooks and circle hooks. (Fig. B & C) cluded in a grouper category. • The incidents of “blown” stomachs directly Likewise, the three different shark species caught relates to water depth fished. More grouper had — Atlantic sharpnose, dusky and tiger sharks — blown stomachs when caught in deeper waters. were combined into a shark category. All other (Fig. D) Four hook treatments were fished simultaneously and were randomly assigned to four rods. Results 16 0.18 14 Large grouper 0.16 Bycatch Gut 0.14 12 Gills -1 0.12 10 Body 0.10 Eye 8 0.08 6 Proportion 0.06 Number caught d 0.04 4 0.02 2 0.00 0 5/0 J 7/0 J 9/0 J 12/0 C 5/0 J 7/0 J 9/0 J 12/0 C Hook treatment Hook treatment Fig. A Proportion of hooking locations in grouper for Fig. B Catch rates of large grouper and bycatch four hook treatments. Grouper wer gut-hooked more often across hook treatments. Catch rates of large grouper with J-hooks. The remaining proportion of fish for each (>20 inches) were not significantly influenced by hook hook treatment were jaw-hooked. treatment, while catch rates of bycatch were significantly reduced at larger hook sizes. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals. 35 132 172 177 132 30 0.70 16 25 0.60 0.50 20 9 0.40 15 0.30 10 Proportion Fork length (inches) 0.20 15 5 0.10 510 0.00 0 40-59 60-79 80-99 100-119 120-139 5/0 J 7/0 J 9/0 J 12/0 C Depth (ft) Hook treatment Fig. C Hook treatments did not have a significant effect Fig. D Proportion of gag grouper with distended on grouper size. Numbers above bars indicate number of stomachs across five depth ranges. Note number of fish measured for each hook treatment. fish sampled for each depth range. About this report... This report is based on North Carolina Fishery For complete information about the FRG pro- Resource Grant 03-FEG-10 by: gram, visit North Carolina Sea Grant online at • Jeffrey Buckel and Nathan Bacheler of North www.ncseagrant.org and click on "Research." Carolina State University; A copy of the full FRG report can be down- • Alex Ng and Anthony Ng of Atlantic Beach. loaded. Or, request a copy from North Carolina Sea The FRG program is funded by the N.C. General Grant, North Carolina State University, Box 8605, Assembly and administered by North Carolina Sea Raleigh, NC 27695-8605; Phone: 919/515-2454. Grant. — Jeffrey Buckel A publication of North Carolina Sea Grant pursuant to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Award No. NA86RG0036, Support also provided by the North Carolina North Carolina Fishery Resource Grant Program..