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Gathering fish for food is something that has been done almost entirely at the dawn of humanity, but fishing as a hobby or sport is a relatively recent phenomenon. Athletes who simply fish for pleasure often adopt strict release policies to ensure the robustness of fish populations and preserve their hobby in the future.
However, a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology suggests that simply catching a fish may be enough to sentence him to death, even if he is quickly returned to the water after being dropped.
The study focused on the damage caused by hooks in the mouth of previously caught fish. Once hooked, the tissue around the mouth of a fish is often damaged, sometimes severely. The long-held belief that fish do not feel the pain in the same way as humans or other animals is often enough to appease the guilt of tearing a fish's lip, but the study indicates that it does not is not the problem.
"Using high-speed video and digital fluid dynamics (CFD), we asked if wounds around the mouth caused by hooks had a negative impact on suction feeding performance," write the authors. researchers. "We hypothesized that mouth-injured fish would have reduced feed performance compared to controls."
Well, it turns out that their hypothesis proved true. The suction feeding mechanism used by many fish to suck and secure their prey is indeed hindered by mouth wounds caused by hooks. Fish with hooks are less reliable feeders, which could jeopardize their chances of survival.
"Injuries caused by fishing in the wild are likely to affect the nutritional performance of fish after their release," say the scientists.
Although the study focuses on food performance and the results are very clear, the actual impact on survival of the fish injured by a hook was not followed. Further study may provide a better understanding of the overall impact on fish wounded with hooks, but the fact that these wounds make food much more difficult to eat suggests that long-term results could be catastrophic .
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