MIAMI - The SeaQualizer ($49.95 at Capt. Harry's Fishing Supply in Miami) might be the best device invented so far to solve the problem of bycatch mortality from barotrauma - a potentially lethal condition similar to "the bends" in humans.
When a fish is reeled up quickly from the ocean floor, its air bladder expands - sometimes so much that its insides protrude from its mouth. When the angler releases the fish, the air bladder cannot deflate enough to allow it to swim back down to where it was caught, and it dies.
Previously, the only way to counteract the problem was to vent the fish's air bladder with a sharp needle, but many fish died from puncture wounds or improper technique. Enter south Florida-based Finovation Inc. partners Jeffrey Liederman, 25 - an expert tournament angler and crew member whose family owns Capt. Harry's - and his childhood friends, the Brown brothers, Patrick, 26, a marine scientist, and Ryan, 25, a civil engineer.
Their SeaQualizer has noninvasive securing jaws similar to a Boga Grip that grip the fish's lower lip. Fish and device are lowered into the water on a weighted fishing line to the desired depth - 50, 100 or 150 feet. When that depth is reached, the pressure differential triggers the jaws to open so the fish can swim away.
The partners say the tool has been field tested on hundreds of grouper, snapper and other bottom dwellers. They have posted a video on YouTube showing a snowy grouper being released and swimming away at a depth of 150 feet.
≈~≈The Daily Catch Team≈~≈
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