Study reveals fish with hooks have difficulty eating after release

A new study from the University of California, Riverside, highlights a potential problem with releasing fishing, a sport in which anglers catch a fish and then release it into the water. Water without killing it. The researchers say that removing the hook could have serious consequences for the future ability of the fish to eat.

Releasing fishing has long been considered a harmless sport, although problems related to pain or damage to fish have been raised over the years. The latest study on this topic has found that hook-in-the-mouth injuries – particularly hook removal – can reduce the creature's ability to catch the prey it eats.

The problem lies in the number of popular fish eaten – see feeding by suction, which is the fact that the fish quickly opens their mouths to suck up their food. The suction is created by the negative pressure, which is impacted by the extra hole in the fish's mouth after the withdrawal of the hook.

Tim Higham, a UCR researcher, compared the effect of the injury to that of drinking with a straw in the side. Proper aspiration is no longer possible, which reduces what can be sucked into the mouth. Trout, bass and salmon are among the fish that feed by suction.

During the study, researchers found that the feeding capacity of fish with hook injuries was "dramatically reduced". This could make the injured fish more vulnerable to death due to the inability to obtain sufficient levels of food, but researchers warn that long-term effects are not evident at this stage.

SOURCE: DUC