[Jlavine]

I was speaking with an aquatic veterinarian (top in his field) at a local veterinary teaching hospital and he had some very interesting insights on venting.

He said they have looked at lots of fish post venting and the majority of them had scarred or infected tracts from venting, scarred swim bladders and had a very small rate of survival. His main opinion was that anything brought up from the depth should be kept and humanely euthanized, but unfortunately regulations prohibit that at times. The new tools that allow you to very slowly lower the fish back down to an appropriate depth may increase survival and definitely don't do more harm to the fish than poking it with a non-sterile needle (and probably with the wrong technique).