[Gerry Zagorski]

Releasing the big fish has become very popular and I've seen captains and crew go out of there way to revive them in holding tanks if they think they're not ready to go back. We throw back all the females and if we do decide to keep some males, we're not pigs about it. They're also a very hearty fish so I don't think the catch and release mortality is as much of an issue as it is with other species.

If you're not familiar with identifying males from females the picture attached here is a male as you'll see from the distinctive white spot.

I've read a lot of articles and these fish don't move north and south, they move east and west from shallow water to deeper waters depending on water temps. They're also very territorial and usually return to the same pieces every year. For this reason, if we want to keep them around our local wrecks and reefs in numbers, we have to consider being more selective about where and what we keep.