Release Weights Back on the Menu

For what started as one concerned fisher's solution to witnessing released fish floating helplessly on the surface has grown to become almost a regular in every boat fishers tackle box. This important piece of equipment is the Release Weight.

The fact that the Release Weight is so simple and uncomplicated to use provides universal appeal to bottom fishers as a release technique. What it essentially does is apply the basic principle of re-pressurising the fish by assisting the fish to return to the depth it has come from to lesson the effects of barotrauma.

Recfishwest has been a long time supporter of the Release Weight as the preferred method for releasing demersal reef fish and has just completed a project redesigning the original brochure as well as filming an information DVD on how to best use the Release Weight. (See Recfishwest's Release Weight DVD page and More about the Release Weight and how to use it)

This project has been made possible thanks to funding received through the Australian Government's Recreational Fishing Community Grants Programme.

Free DVD and new brochure

Copies of the new brochure will be mailed out to all major tackle stores along with the DVDs in the coming weeks. If you haven't already purchased a Release Weight for your boat make sure you pick one up and grab an information DVD and brochure on how to use it at the same time. You can quite easily make your own Release Weight, but for around $15 dollars you can have the convenience of picking one up ready made. At those prices you may as well grab two.

The importance of the Release Weight as an effective means for releasing demersal reef species has been shown through the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Murdoch University and Department of Fisheries project, "Maximising the survival of released undersize West Coast Reef Fish"

The tag recapture data from this study found the Release Weight to be by far and away the superior method of releasing dhufish. Recaptures were 10.1% for fish release using Release Weight whereas simple release recaptures were 6.3%. The other release method tested was Venting. This is a popular method of releasing fish on the east coast, but not used as heavily here in Western Australia due to the difficulties in accurately finding the swim bladder in a number of our species. Recaptures for this method were a low 2.5%.

As recreational fishers are required to release more and more fish through various management controls as well as a changing ethos to catch and release the importance of making sure that each fish swims away healthy and a chance of surviving the capture is even more apparent.

Recfishwest has even gone as far as to recommend in our response to the Minister's paper on the recommend changes to recreational fishing of vulnerable iconic fish that; Any boat which is required to carry and EPIRB and has fishing gear onboard, should also be required to carry a device capable of being used as a release weight, including all commercial fishing boats with wetline entitlements.

Some may believe the compulsory carrying of a Release Weight is going too far, but given the amount of safety equipment we are required to carry for our own safety, it shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience to do something for the safety of our fish.

Recfishwest believes the only inhibiter to the Release Weight being used by all recreational bottom fishers is a lack of promotion of the product. The tackle retailers are on board selling the Release Weight at around cost price and Sunset Sinker Supplies are now manufacturing the product. The aim of Recfishwest's brochure redesign and DVD production is to increase the public awareness.

Shooting video for the Release Weight DVD

The shooting of the Release Weight DVD proved to be a challenging exercise with bad weather and other commitments within the office causing the day of the filming to be delayed a number of times. With the camera man coming from eastern states, bad weather had the potential to make this a costly exercise.

The first day we had planed for the filming was an absolute write-off with the weather. The filming was rescheduled to the following day which turned out to be reasonable weather, however, Recfishwest's Administration Officer, Con Costa, would argue this point. Poor Con put hours of work into organising the logistics of filming and was dearly looking forward to a fish and contributing to the production. Unfortunately the weather conditions didn't completely agree with his stomach and he spent most of the day vomiting. For those that have experienced sea-sickness you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy.

Blue Juice Charters kindly provided there vessel at a reduced rate for the day of the filming and put us onto some good fish. Without fish the DVD would have been pretty boring.

The day got off to a fantastic start when Dean Thorburn hooked into a nice 6-7kg pink snapper off the back of the 3 mile reef, within sight of Hillarys Marina. The camera man got some great footage of the catch and subsequent release on the Release Weight. This helped relieve some of the anxiety that we wouldn't be able to catch anything decent to film. With some great footage within 30 minutes of leaving the marina we thought this was going to be easy.

A few more unsuccessful drifts at the 3 mile and we then headed out into deeper waters to see if we could catch a dhufish. This was the species that we dearly wanted to capture on film on the release weight. The plan was to hopefully get some underwater footage of the release weight in action and we had two strategies to try and capture this action. One was using divers in the water and filming the fish descend to the depths and the other was with a camera lens attached to the line above the release weight, which would film the fish from a fixed location as it descended.

It took a while before we caught our next fish, but we eventually hooked into a double header including both a dhufish and pink snapper. While the film crew captured the above water shots, BJ (the underwater photographer) and I jumped in the water to try and capture the fish being released on the way down. The poor visibility and strong water currents made this difficult and the footage turned out to be poor. We always new getting the underwater money shots were going to be difficult.

That dhufish proved to be the only one for the day, but we did get a number of other species that showed the benefit of the Release Weight for incidental catches and non-target species. It is still important that these fish are given the best possible chance of post release survival. They too should be put on a Release Weight if showing signs of barotrauma. We managed to get some nice footage with the camera fixed above the Release Weight and we moved into some shallower water around Rottnest and captured some useful underwater footage of a breaksea cod being released. It was certainly harder than we though it would be. I must thank the efforts of everyone that assisted in the filming of the DVD.

The editing of the DVD is just being finalised and should be available in most tackle stores very soon. If you aren't fully aware of how to use the Release Weight make sure you grab one when you next drop into a tackle store. They will be provided free of charge and if they don't have them please contact Recfishwest.

The responsibility of ensuring the healthy release of our demersal species needs to be taken seriously by all anglers. A fish released in a healthy condition is one that can spawn and have the opportunity to be caught again later. In the case of dhufish it is know that they don't move very far and nearly all recaptures have been in close proximity to their site of release.

The ethos in fishing is changing and we are beginning to more and more value every fish, be it destined for the table or release. The Release Weight is an important step in the right direction.

Recreational Fishing Community Grants Programme

The Recreational Fishing Community Grants Programme that funded the Release Weight DVD is now unfortunately defunct with the recent change of the federal government. The Liberal government's commitment of 15 million over three years for recreational fishing projects has not been continued by the incoming Labor government. This is unfortunate for Recfishwest as it has been successful in receiving funds for 5 projects through this funding body, including the Addicted for Fishing not Drugs (twice), Young Future Leaders, Drakesbrook Dam Artificial Marron Habitat Enhancement (works completed later this year) and the Release Weight DVD.

Recfishwest is hoping to arrange a meeting with Tony Burke, the new federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, to discuss what plan the Labor government has for recreational fishing in Australia. We are hopeful that a similar funding source for important grass roots projects like these will be made available soon.

Kane Moyle
Policy Officer
Recfishwest


2008 Recfishwest Young Future Leaders

Pete Berlinski
Danny Dyson
Christopher Giles
Matthew Gillett
Lisa Hill
Greg Huebner
Chris Jones
Frank Nicol
Justin Nowrojee
Michael Sawyer
Andrew Shuy
Peter Van Schoubroeck
Mary Waldron
Paul Willis

Website links about releasing fish and survival

     

The contents of the DVD:- "Using the Release Weight to improve the survival of released fish" can be viewed directly or downloaded and saved to view later from Recfishwest's Release Weight DVD page

Collaborative tagging program and research - more about the West Coast research results mentioned in the video.

About the Release Weight and how to use it

Brochure on the Release Weight formatted for printing on two A4 pages (217 kilobyte PDF file)

Info-fish website Released fish survival - Gently does it (link opens in a new window)



FRDC "Gently does it" media release (link opens in a new window)

National Strategy for the Survival of Released Line Caught Fish (1.1 Megabyte PDF file - link opens in a new window)

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Headings and links have been added to this website version of the article printed in the "Hotbite" magazine.

These articles are written some weeks before the first of the month of publication, so can only include information known at that time.

Posting on the RFW website is deliberately delayed until the following month's publication is available in newsagents.

The extra links added will give some later information.



This page prepared on 19 May 2008, last updated on 10 July 2008.