Does Pectoral Spine Extraction Cause Mortality to Channel Catfish?

Pectoral spines have been commonly used to age channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Recently, use of otoliths has increased because they may provide more accurate and precise estimates of age. A presumed advantage of using pectoral spines instead of otoliths is that fish can be released alive and experience little mortality. However, little information is available to test this presumption. I used mark and recapture of channel catfish in two impoundments to assess whether recapture rates differed between fish that had their left pectoral spine removed and those that did not. Channel catfish were marked in June and recaptured in October. There was no difference in the proportion of channel catfish recaptured that had their spine removed versus those that did not in either impoundment. My findings suggest that pectoral spine extraction causes little if any mortality to channel catfish.