Do Boca-Grips kill fish?

[JerryInLodi]

A recent Florida study has found that fish hung by the lower jaw for weighing (a la Boca) sometimes suffer fatal consequences. Here's an excerpt from the article.

"Refrain from holding fish in a vertical position when inspecting or photographing them. Internal organs are displaced and stress is increased in this unnatural position. Large fish should never be held by the bottom jaw only, with a boca grip or otherwise (any tool designed to grip the lower jaw of caught fish to facilitate handling). Hold the fish horizontally by the lower jaw with one hand, and support the belly with the other hand. If unsupported, many large fish, especially snook, will rupture the isthmus–a cartilaginous bundle of ligaments that connects the head and body--and the fish will die a slow death from starvation. This connection is necessary for the tremendous gulping action during feeding."

You can see the full article at:

http://www.floridamarine.org/feature...le.asp?id=3907

For myself, I don't use a Boca, instead I use a soft net and one of the digital scales inserted in the gill plate and quickly weighed being careful not to tear tissue.

It would be interesting to conduct a test on a series of 15#plus stripers and then have them dissected to determine damage if any. While it might cost the lives of ten or so fish, it may save a breeding population of hundreds if we find that, unintentionally, we're killing what we have intended to release.

[NCS]

Interesting topic. I saw a similar article a while back about the effects of boga-ing 50+ pound baramundi in Australia. As I remember, the conclusion was the same as the Florida article, and that larger fish were more succeptible.
Since I already had the boga, I started using it to control stripes while they were still in the water for unhooking and photos. A quick 10 second lift out of the water for a weight is all I get. Maybe from now on I will use a tape measure instead!
Nick

[Darian]

Good article.... I don't own/use a Boga Grip but don't have a problem believing that it could cause injury if a heavy fish is lifted out of the water, vertically.... Lots of other ways to take a fish from the water for photo's/weighing....

[HC]

Yea, I heard about this a few years back. If you plan to release please don't Boga the fish. HC

[LVC]

I heard about that after I got a boga. I talked with my brother who is a biologist and he thought it was likely (damage) on bigger fish. It is worse if the fish flops around and it would only take a couple of flops to cause damgae. I now use it to control the fish IN THE WATER. I don't need a picture that badly.
LVC

[slimfishin's]

As is the case with many biological situations, mortality related to stress is often a case of cummulative effects, but more often can be characterized by thresholds. The article makes many valid points, and in the best interest of maintaining fisheries under heavey exploitation, it would be best to minimize mortality associated with sport fishing. However, the article says that boga grips (or the lower jaw - verticle hold) harm larger fish more, but does not give any guidelines as to HOW large. At what point does a boga grip become a significant source of mortality? Is it at 5lbs? 8? 15? 20? I'm sure that you could safely handle many stripers with a boga before catching a large enough fish to where you might impart fatal injury. But, that threshold of size will be hard to come by without further experimentation. Preventing post-release mortality is more about reducing the TOTAL stress on fish, and less about the stress of one particular aspect of the catch process. Various factors talked about in the article (water temperature, fight duration, total fatigue etc...) are going to combine to decide mortality. Unless one particular thing is absolutely deadly, mortality will be determined by interacting impacts of various factors.

With that said, we should do what we can to minimize many of those factors. However, if I'm catching mostly 5-8lbs stripers, I will probably continue to use my boga grip. I find the control I have over fish prevents more damaging things from happening... like dropping them in the boat an wrestling to get them back in the water. Besides, you don't have to lift them out of the water by their face to get good control, and avoid getting a spine in your hand. When it comes to handling those bigger fish (if you're lucky), then this issue might be more important. It is true that those big huge fish contribute to most of the reproduction.

Interesting topic, no doubt.
SF

[Darian]

Hmmm,.... Interesting Discussion. I agree with all of your points and that we should do everything we can too reduce stress levels produced in the catch/release process to a minimum.

I'm curious if anyone else thinks that lifting a large Black Bass, vertically, by it's lower jaw is any different than using a Boga

[HC]

No difference. The damage is internal. HC