The Return ‘Em Right project was born out of an effort to improve the survival of reef fish in the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico) when caught and released. Since Return ‘Em Right began in 2022, the project has trained almost 50,000 anglers on the use of gear that increases the chance that released fish survive by being safely returned. The importance of this work is reflected in the voices of boat captains, researchers, inventors, and partners in five new videos.
Dive Deep into Return ‘Em Right
Return 'Em Right's "After The Return" video series tells stories of the project from five fishery perspectives:
- The Advocate: Featuring Guy Harvey, a lifelong fisherman and conservationist. He speaks to the growing interest in fishing, the responsibility of anglers to protect the resource, and the success of descending devices.
- The Inventors: Passionate and experienced fishermen, the two creators of SeaQualizer—a widely used descending device—discuss the impacts of barotrauma, what it looks like, and the need for descending devices.
- The Scientist: Dr. Brendan Runde shares findings from his many studies about the impacts of barotrauma and effectiveness of descending devices. He finds that these devices successfully reduce discard mortality, critical to the survival of reef fish.
- The Professor: Dr. Marcus Drymon speaks to the evolution of knowledge about barotrauma and bycatch and the exciting opportunities to address these challenges. His recent research finds that descending devices reduce shark predation greater than 99% of the time.
- The Captain: Ed Walker, a fishing guide on the Gulf for 35 years, discusses what he sees on boats and the ways that anglers are interacting with their catch. More and more fishers are aware of barotrauma and excited to participate in solutions. He calls on everyone to learn about and use descending devices.
Pressure Weighs on Prized Reef Fish
Reef fish species live near the sea floor among bottom habitats like coral reefs where they are protected from predators and able to find food for themselves. They also play a critical role for the health of coral reef ecosystems, which depend on reef fish to cycle nutrients and control algae. The resilience of reefs, and their contributions to the economy, rely on the presence of these fish.
But the reefs in which these species live are between 50 and 400 feet deep, where the pressure is far greater than it is on the surface. As a fish is quickly reeled up from these depths, the rapid change in pressure causes a condition called barotrauma. The term describes the buildup of gases and resulting expansion of their bodies. Fish suffering from barotrauma often have bulging eyes, protruding stomachs, bubbled scales, and an inflated swim bladder.
When these fish are released—whether because they’re too small, out of season, or daily limits are reached—they float on the surface, unable to swim down. They are often eaten by sharks, dolphins, or barracuda. As Dan Foster, a retired NOAA Fisheries Biologist at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, describes in one of the videos, “it’s like trying to dive to the bottom of the pool while wearing a life jacket.”
The Solution: Return ‘Em Right
Catch and release practices are one tool to support fish stock recovery, but barotrauma requires another step for a release to be successful. In the new video series, Captain Ed Walker—a fishing guide in the Gulf for almost 35 years—says that more and more fishermen are understanding it and eager to find solutions.
That’s where Return ‘Em Right comes in. The program educates anglers on barotrauma and how to combat it using tools called descending devices. These devices help fish get back to the depths at which they belong, allowing them to recompress and swim away as though nothing happened.
Return ‘Em Right worked with partners to get the program off the ground. Fishermen’s and for-hire captains’ voices were critical in the creation of educational manuals, flyers, and ultimately a 15-minute video training available to everyone.
Partners in this effort include:
- Anglers
- Industry groups
- Florida Sea Grant
- University of Florida
- Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission
- NOAA
- Other government and non-government organizations
Lowering Fish, Raising Survival Rates
Descending devices take a few forms. One, called a fish elevator, uses a weighted, inverted crate to lower the fish. Once a fish is recompressed, it simply swims out of the bottom opening. Another is a clamp attached to a fish’s bottom jaw. Once it reaches a specific depth, it releases the fish.
Research by Dr. Marcus Drymon—an Associate Professor of Marine Science at Mississippi State University and lifelong fisherman—shows that descending devices are remarkably successful at avoiding predators. As he describes in the “After the Return” video series, fish taken back down to depth avoid being eaten by sharks or dolphins more than 99 percent of the time.
Since Return ‘Em Right began, the project has trained almost 50,000 anglers in the use of descending devices, far past its initial goal. Dr. Drymon is encouraged by the “young anglers on the water wholeheartedly adopting tools, techniques, approaches like this.”
Captain Walker wants descending devices to be a standard practice. In Return ‘Em Right’s video series he says, “to the people that aren’t aware of this yet, we need to make efforts to tell them ‘hey this is just part of fishing nowadays. It’s like bringing a rod and bringing some bait. You bring a descending device with you… It’s what we do and we’ll all be better off for it.’”
