532 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service Fishery Bulletin 
NO A A established in 1881 •<?. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
The physiological stress response, postrelease 
behavior, and mortality of blacktip sharks 
(Carcharhinus limbatus) caught on circle and 
J-hooks in the Florida recreational fishery 
Email address for contact author: nwhitney@neaq.org 
Abstract —The blacktip shark (Car¬ 
charhinus limbatus) is the most 
commonly captured species in the 
Florida recreational shark fishery. 
We aimed to quantify the postrelease 
mortality of blacktip sharks and to 
determine whether hook type (circle 
or J) had any impact on survival. 
We measured capture variables 
(e.g., fight time, animal condition, 
etc.), blood gas analytes, and fine- 
scale behavior obtained by using 
acceleration data loggers for black¬ 
tip sharks (n=31) caught on rod 
and reel by recreational fishermen. 
Mortalities (n= 3; 9.7%) all occurred 
within 2 h after release. Surviving 
sharks were monitored for 7 to 72 
h (mean: 30 h [standard deviation 
(SD) 22]) and behaviorally recovered 
from capture within 11 h (SD 2.6), 
although larger individuals recov¬ 
ered faster. Hook type did not affect 
where a shark was hooked, animal 
condition, the likelihood of hook re¬ 
moval, or recovery time. We found 
relatively low levels of mortality for 
blacktip sharks caught in the recre¬ 
ational fishery that were kept in the 
water and had not sustained serious 
injuries. 
Manuscript submitted 19 January 2017. 
Manuscript accepted 15 August 2017. 
Fish. Bull. 115:532-543 (2017). 
Online publication date: 14 September 2017. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.115.4.9 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Nicholas M. Whitney (contact author ) 1 ' 2 
Connor F. White 1 
Paul A. Anderson 3 - 4 
Robert E. Hueter 5 
Gregory B. Skomal 6 
1 Behavioral Ecology and Physiology Program 
Mote Marine Laboratory 
1600 Ken Thompson Parkway 
Sarasota, Florida 34236 
2 Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life 
New England Aquarium 
1 Central Wharf 
Boston, Massachusetts 02110 
3 The Florida Aquarium Center for Conservation 
701 Channelside Drive 
Tampa, Florida 33602 
The practice of catch-and-release has 
become more common in commercial 
and recreational fisheries in recent 
decades in order to ensure the sus¬ 
tainability of global fisheries (Bar¬ 
tholomew and Bohnsack, 2005 ). Al¬ 
though the catch-and-release method 
is advocated and broadly mandated 
to minimize impacts on fisheries 
stocks, postrelease mortality may 
still occur owing to stress, injuries, 
and an increased susceptibility to 
natural predation (Bartholomew and 
Bohnsack, 2005; Cooke and Sch¬ 
ramm, 2007 ; Raby et al., 2014 ). In 
efforts to reduce mortality, manage¬ 
ment practices are enacted to reduce 
capture stress and physical trauma 
and thus, ultimately increase the 
sustainability of fisheries (Davis, 
2002; Cooke and Schramm, 2007). 
4 Mystic Aquarium 
Sea Research Foundation, Inc. 
do University of Connecticut at Avery Point 
1084 Shennecossett Road 
Groton, CT 06340 USA 
5 Center for Shark Research 
Mote Marine Laboratory 
1600 Ken Thompson Parkway 
Sarasota, Florida 34236 
6 Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries 
1213 Purchase Street 
New Bedford, Massachusetts 02740 
Most work on the impacts of 
catch-and-release fishing has focused 
on teleosts, even though global shark 
populations are declining and some 
are experiencing up to 90% reduc¬ 
tions because of over-exploitation 
and bycatch in commercial fisheries 
(Ferretti et al., 2010). In addition to 
population declines from commer¬ 
cial fishing pressure, many elasmo- 
branch stocks are experiencing in¬ 
creased recreational fishing pressure 
owing to the recent increases in the 
popularity of recreational shark fish¬ 
ing (Skomal, 2007 ; Danylchuk et al., 
2014). Sharks are generally more sus¬ 
ceptible to fishing pressure because 
of their K-selected life history traits 
(Hoenig and Gruber, 1990). There is 
somewhat limited information avail¬ 
able on how elasmobranchs handle 
