MSC has had a lot of new members come on board since MSC sponsored the subject study with the SCDNR Fishery Research Group, so I thought it might be appropriate to
There has been some inquiry about whether actual scientific studies of the Striper Tubes have been conducted. Well they have and MSC was a vital part of that study. MSC funded 50% of the study and MSC members helped the biologists catch, tag, and collect blood samples of the fish. Jason Bettinger, SCDNR actually led the project and wrote the scientific report for the study.
Below is the link to the USGS Government Publications site and the abstract from the North American Journal of Fisheries Management documenting the “Scientific” research which included telemetry tracking of fish for weeks after release, and actual blood gas studies measuring physiological changes to the fish held in the striper tubes and comparing those fish to fish caught and released without holding them in Striper Tubes.
In full disclosure, since I teamed with MSC in donating Striper Tubes to the SCDNR Fisheries Research group, I wanted to make sure that the report would not appear to be biased so I had no other participation in the study. As I stated earlier, MSC members and striper guides from Lake Murray participated directly with the SCDNR biologists and fishery scientists in all other aspects of the project and are listed in the full text acknowledgements by the fisheries research scientist.
I would encourage everyone to do their own homework and go get the publication in its entirety. Be aware that it is written by Fisheries Scientists and is highly scientific and technical in nature.
Although the abstract is included further down below, here are the Cliff Notes version main points:
1). Basically, during the cooler weather the Striper Tube held fish blood chemistry began to returned to normal after 150-minutes in the striper tubes and had 100% survival.
2). In hot summer weather the mortality of striped bass not in Striper Tubes was 83% and t