Rockfish Recompression. (because sometimes gas just happens)

Question: What’s better than famed ichthyologist Milton Love masquerading as a hand puppet in a rockfish rap video?

Answer: Not much.

Barotrauma can be a real beezy. Luckily we, and those fabulous little rockfish, can get down with our bad selves and the help of this most epic video montage. The following Rockfish PSA was concocted by the masterminds of California Sea Grant and NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

I give it two fins. Way way up.

Side note: I found Dr. M’s doppleganger. (@7:29 fisherapper with hat on)

5 Replies to “Rockfish Recompression. (because sometimes gas just happens)”

  1. Wouldn’t it be possible to release the gas from the swimbladder using a small needle or something, too?
    In case you don’t have a recompression device handy, that is.

  2. I can’t imagine that would feel too great for our little rockstar. Not to mention, render the swim bladder somewhat useless for buoyancy control once the rockfish made it to the bottom.

  3. Has any group/entity etc., tried to introduce this practice in commercial fisheries? For example a large foldable/collapsible mesh cage where fishermen could put all their barotramatized by-catch in at the end of a long line/gillnet haul.

    Or alternatively for trawl fishermen a double catch cod end that could be set out with undersized by-catch, released at the bottom and than re-closed/reset to resume fishing activities?

    Basically scaling up the party boat/ recreationally fishing techniques.

    Nice to see a simple solutions to this problem, thanks for sharing!

  4. That’s a great question Brandon! To which I do not have an exact answer, but I can speculate something like that might be difficult on the basis of time out of water. For the success of this process, I believe the fish need to be taken back to the bottom relatively quickly (who knew it could be rough having your stomach hanging out of your mouth), and if you were waiting out a whole long line, I don’t know if they would make it. Good thinking though!

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