Well, it was news to me. Trout are pretty resilient, from what I've read of the studies with trout C&R. It had not occured to me that predation was so intense and immediate for bonefish. I'd say mostl bonefish photo ops would be putting the fish in peril, including my own photo ops from last December's trip to the Bahamas. Now, I'm feeling pretty bad about those pics.

Of course, as someone else pointed out on another board today, not all places have cudas and high concentrations of sharks, so, some places are less dangerous than others. The air exposure alone didn't harm the fish, it was the predation. If the fish didn't get eaten, it was fine, even with extended air exposure, except when water temps were on the high end.

I think the study would argue agaist the "the only way to not harm them is to not fish for them" line of reasoning. The study pretty much showed that if you don't take the fish out of the water, they recover well and are not eaten. I understand, as most anglers do, that fishing is a blood sport... some fish are going to die from whatever cause... but when the mortality starts heading north of 5-10%, I think most anglers would see that as a problem. What's the point of C&R if such a high number of fish die? Might as well have a catching limit at that point that mirrors bag limits, since those fish are, in fact, bagged. Know what I mean?

The fish pen sounds interesting... I wonder if anyone has done that. The study results, from my read, would indicate that it wouldn't be needed in most case. It was (almost) only when the fish lost equilibrium that it was in trouble and that almost always was the result of extended air exposure and handling. If you release the fish like they do here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfbGI3DuFrI), odds are very good you won't have a problem.

That's my read on it, anyway. Good thing to have a conversation about, for sure.

B-