Mullet and C&R

[Steve Coppolo]

O.K, this is a serious question for the mullet specialist out there. It is not intended as a wind up or to start a fight.

 

As there are two seperate threads running at the moment relating to mullet and C&R, I would like to know the following.

 

What is the mortality rate of mullet that are caught and released? The reason I ask is promted by the fact that once handled, Mackerel are known to die. This, I believe is because of the removal of mucus or 'slime' from their bodies. The reason I link this to mulet is because I don't kniow any fish that sheds more mucus and scales in the net, than mullet. Even the slimy old Bream doesn't seem to make such a mess. Even with the most careful handling, they all seem to drop scales like no one's business - and the slime! It's enough to give the Ghostbusters nightmares.

 

Add to this the fact that Mullet are one of the hardest fighting fish in our waters - and the fact that that they seem fight harder the longer you have them on - and that the trend is to use light, 'sporting' tackle to catch them, being caught can't do them much good.

 

Have there been any tagging studies done which may indicate mortality rates of C&R'd Mullet? If so, who has done it and what were the results?

[big_cod]

O.K, this is a serious question for the mullet specialist out there. It is not intended as a wind up or to start a fight.

 

As there are two seperate threads running at the moment relating to mullet and C&R, I would like to know the following.

 

What is the mortality rate of mullet that are caught and released? The reason I ask is promted by the fact that once handled, Mackerel are known to die. This, I believe is because of the removal of mucus or 'slime' from their bodies. The reason I link this to mulet is because I don't kniow any fish that sheds more mucus and scales in the net, than mullet. Even the slimy old Bream doesn't seem to make such a mess. Even with the most careful handling, they all seem to drop scales like no one's business - and the slime! It's enough to give the Ghostbusters nightmares.

 

Add to this the fact that Mullet are one of the hardest fighting fish in our waters - and the fact that that they seem fight harder the longer you have them on - and that the trend is to use light, 'sporting' tackle to catch them, being caught can't do them much good.

 

Have there been any tagging studies done which may indicate mortality rates of C&R'd Mullet? If so, who has done it and what were the results?

 

 

Now theres a good one.

 

paul.

[barry luxton]

50-50, i think it could go either way.

 

First of all you could get some mullet mullers who will categoriclly deny any harm has come in the pursuit of their sport, much like fox hunting i suppose.

 

Or you could get a group of divers in sympathy with an ngo called the marine conservation society, who when surfacing states that it has seen umpteen mullet resting on the bottom while struggling for breath intimating that it was all the mullet mullers fault.

 

Me, i would go for the latter.

 

 

errr sorry Steve, i dunno

Edited December 31, 2009 by barry luxton

[Steve Coppolo]

50-50, i think it could go either way.

 

First of all you could get some mullet mullers who will categoriclly deny any harm has come in the pursuit of their sport, much like fox hunting i suppose.

 

Or you could get a group of divers in sympathy with an ngo called the marine conservation society, who when surfacing states that it has seen umpteen mullet resting on the bottom while struggling for breath intimating that it was all the mullet mullers fault.

 

Me, i would go for the latter.

 

 

errr sorry Steve, i dunno

 

I'm not after arguments or opinions, Barry, but hard facts - if there are any available. That's why I asked about the tagging. Bass and shark species, including skates and rays, have been tagged, released and re-caught plenty of times, so the indication is that these species are hardy enough to tollerate C&R. Some species, like Mackerel, are not.

[barry luxton]

I'm not after arguments or opinions, Barry, but hard facts - if there are any available. That's why I asked about the tagging. Bass and shark species, including skates and rays, have been tagged, released and re-caught plenty of times, so the indication is that these species are hardy enough to tollerate C&R. Some species, like Mackerel, are not.

 

I don't think you will get a straight answer. If there were hard facts regarding catch and release, you would have seen some with regards to the introduction of the new chichester rules and regulation surly. Unless the facts are not what it is percieved as 'politicly' correct. Between the devil and and the deep blue sea.

 

We do know that in previous news releases the mullet club have pointed to commercial landings of the mullet in particular down the south west. Yet there hasn't been any reports of a shortage of mullet, 'cept in chichester harbour that is.

[steve pitts]

What is the mortality rate of mullet that are caught and released?

 

Have there been any tagging studies done which may indicate mortality rates of C&R'd Mullet? If so, who has done it and what were the results?

 

Hi Steve

 

As I understand it - very little is known about mullet, compared to other species.

 

I did a quick Google and came up with a tagging study conducted on striped mullet mortality where 15,000 fish were tagged in N. Carolina between 1997 and 2001.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16659073

 

The study résumé, which appeared in the North American journal of fisheries management, contains the following -

 

Concomitant holding tank experiments suggested that tag retention and post-tagging survival, two central assumptions of the tag return model, were extremely high for adult striped mullet.

 

Cheers

Steve

[Steve Coppolo]

Hi Steve

 

As I understand it - very little is known about mullet, compared to other species.

 

I did a quick Google and came up with a tagging study conducted on striped mullet mortality where 15,000 fish were tagged in N. Carolina between 1997 and 2001.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16659073

 

The study résumé, which appeared in the North American journal of fisheries management, contains the following -

 

Concomitant holding tank experiments suggested that tag retention and post-tagging survival, two central assumptions of the tag return model, were extremely high for adult striped mullet.

 

Cheers

Steve

 

 

Hello Steve. Happy new year to you.

 

Thanks for that, I couldn't find anything on UK Mullet, either. The striped Mullet figures should give us a good idea, but I don't know how accurate an idea considering the following info I found, also on google;

 

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/Seaf...eet.aspx?gid=45

 

Striped Mullet

Striped mullet matures quickly and is relatively short-lived, which helps keep populations healthy and abundant despite heavy fishing pressure.

 

Summary

Striped mullet lives in the coastal areas around the Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic. This species is important in many local economies and also plays a vital role as a prey species in coastal ecosystems.

The largest commercial fisheries for striped mullet are in southwest Florida and east of the Mississippi river off the Louisiana coast. Striped mullet is mainly valued for its roe (eggs) and is also used as bait by commercial and recreational fishermen.

Striped mullet is caught with strike nets, cast nets or beach seine. These fishing methods result in minimal bycatch or habitat damage.

For these reasons, striped mullet is recommended as a "Best Choice."

 

Although some sites say the striped Mullet are the same species as our own, ours certainly aren't fast growing and short lived. Shame there aren't any UK, or even European, based figures to go on.

[Steve Coppolo]

Oops, double post.

Edited December 31, 2009 by Steve Coppolo

[steve pitts]

The Striped Mullet (Mugil cephalus) is not exactly the same as the thin and thin lipped grey mullet (Chelon labrosus and Liza ramada) but they look pretty similar and have the same habits e.g. frequent shallow inshore and estuarine habitats etc.

 

It could be that the striped mullet's grow fast, die young lifestyle is down to the warmer waters around Florida, Texas and the Carolinas that it inhabits.

 

 

I think that, a bit like bass, grey mullet around the UK are pretty much at the northern limit of their range and if the growth rates of mullet from say, the Med, were compared to 'UK' mullet, the Med mullet would grow faster and mature earlier / live shorter lives etc.

 

Growth rates apart, the striped mullet studies appear to indicate a high survival rate for tagged fish, however they were caught - net or hook and line.

 

15,000 fish would be easier to catch in bulk with nets and I would have thought that this method of capture would be more likely to dislodge scales and protective mucus as C&R by anglers.

 

 

Another striped mullet tagging study was conducted by the Marine Laboratory of the University of Miami on behalf of the Florida State Board of Conservation.

 

A total of 1,050 tagged fish were released the first year. The total recovery of tags was 26.5 percent, and the maximum recovery for one location was 50 percent.

Most tagged mullet were recaptured within comparatively short distances from the place of tagging, 89.8 percent having travelled not more than 20 miles. The longest migration was 150 miles.

 

In another Florida-based mullet tagging study, there were 2,779 recoveries from 12,647 tagged mullet revealed that 91% were recovered with- in 32 km of the release point.

 

 

The NMC carried out some mullet tagging (with MAFF approval) in the late 80's and 90's but the numbers of fish tagged were relatively few and the sample of returns was difficult to interpret.

However, most recaptures were very close to the tagging / release sites, even when recaptured the following year.

 

Mullet appear to be fairly sedentary. Once they've found their ideal location, they don't stray too far, so localised populations may be at risk of depletion, especially as here in the Uk they are slow growing, late maturing and form tightly-packed shoals inshore at times.

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited December 31, 2009 by steve pitts

[Steve Coppolo]

Cheers Steve.

 

That's very interesting, but doesn't give the answers I was looking for. It's good news that a high percentage of US mullet seem to survive being caught, and that seems about as near as we are going to get to studies on our own mullet, but that just makes more of a mystery why the numbers of mulet in christchurch harbour seem to be declining. If in excess of 90% of mullet caught by anglers are released and there is no netting for them, what is happening to them?