Recovery of visual performance in rosy rockfish ( Sebastes rosaceus) following exophthalmia resulting from barotrauma

► Rockfish can suffer extreme ocular trauma during rapid fishing ascent. ► Exophthalmia can overstretch optic nerves and extraocular muscles. ► Rosy rockfish improved visual performance 1 month after exophthalmia. ► Forced recompression may alleviate exophthalmia effects through tissue recovery. Rapid ascent during fishing capture can cause exophthalmia (‘pop eye’) in physoclistic fishes, resulting in stretching of the optic nerves and extraocular muscles, but it is not known whether exophthalmia affects vision temporarily or permanently. We used the optokinetic reflex test to assess changes in visual performance of rosy rockfish ( Sebastes rosaceus) that had experienced exophthalmia. Vision was functional 4 days after recompression and was improved after 1 month of recovery evidenced by individuals being able to track both smaller and faster-moving gratings. Our results suggest that, after recompression, rosy rockfish recover from exophthalmia fairly rapidly and perhaps fast enough to minimize significant adverse impacts on survival. This measured recovery from exophthalmia, in addition to evidence of high short-term, post-release survivorship, shows that recompression of unwanted rosy rockfish may be a viable management technique, and may be appropriate for other rockfish species, some of which are at low population densities due to high fishing pressure.