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Home > Fisheries FAQs > Red Snapper FAQs > Red Snapper De-hooking & Venting

Red Snapper FAQs: De-hooking & Venting

Please send your questions and feedback to redsnapper@lsu.edu

What are the rules, tools, and techniques?

Regulations applied to the recreational fishery for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico necessitate that many hooked and landed individuals must be subsequently released back to the water. This specifically would include both regulatory discards (those less than 16 inches in total length) and all individuals landed either after the daily bag limit has been achieved or outside of the established fishing season. Most fishermen, especially those who frequent the deeper waters off Louisiana, are very familiar with the consequences of pulling up a red snapper from depth: Eyes bulging, intestine protruding from anus, air bladder distended and stomach protruding from mouth, etc. The internal damage caused by this hydrostatically-induced barotrauma may be lethal in and of itself in some cases, yet proper handling of “throwbacks” may enhance chances for post-release survival. The use of “circle” hooks, gentle de-hooking, and venting of the expanded gases in the swim bladder all increase the probability that red snappers can return to depth and survive the entire catch-and-release experience.

Regulations currently enforced in the Gulf of Mexico require non-stainless steel circle hooks to be used when fishing with natural bait; every vessel must also have both a de-hooking device and a venting tool onboard. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Florida Sea Grant College Program have both produced Web-based sites that provide a great deal of information specific to the current regulations and to the tools and techniques for de-hooking and venting of fishes. These can be accessed at the following links:

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Please send your questions and feedback to redsnapper@lsu.edu


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