WEBPAGE UPDATED Friday May 15, 2020

AIR IS NOT OXYGEN

EVERY SUMMER – WHAT’S IS THE REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN USING MECHANICAL AERATION, LIVEWELL WATER PUMPS OR A REAL LIFE SUPPORT OXYGENATION-INJECTION LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM IN LIVEWELLS AND BAIT TANK WATER WHEN TRANSPORTING LIVE BAIT AND TOURNAMENT GAMEFISH?

THE ANSWER IS: YOU HAVE A “DEATH WELL” NOT A “LIVEWELL”

SUMMER “DEATH WELLS” ARE OFTEN HYPOXIC, HAVE LOW OXYGEN SATURATION, THEY ARE OVERCROWDING AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL WATER IS WARM/HOT and THAT’S A NO-BRAINER AND A FACT.

LOW UNSAFE DO SATURATION IS COMMON EVERY SUMMER WHEN FISHERMEN OVERCROWD LIVEWELLS AND RELY ON MECHANICAL AERATION AND LIVEWELL WATER PUMPS TO INSURE MINIMAL SAFE OXYGENATION DURING LIVE TRANSPORTS.

CHRONIC HYPOXIA ALWAYS RESULTS IN SERIOUS SUSTAINED OXYGEN DEPRIVATION AND SUFFOCATION DURING LIVE TRANSPORTS. HYPOXIC LIVEWELL SYMPTOMS ARE WELL KNOWN TO SUMMER C&R TOURNAMENT FISHERMEN AND LIVE BAIT FISHERMEN.

LETHARGIC/SLOPPY BAIT, RED-NOSE, DISEASE AND DEATH IS PREDICTABLE AND SHOULD BE EXPECTED IN ALL AERATED, OVERSTOCKED LIVEWELLS AND BAIT TANKS EVERY SUMMER. 1 LIVE BAIT OR 1 TOURNAMENT FISH OVER THE STOCKING DENSITY LINE AND SUFFOCATION AND HIGH MORTALITY IS PREDICTABLE.

FACT: LOW LIVEWELL OXYGENATION (HYPOXIC WATER QUALITY) IS THE MOST COMMON AND DEADLIEST LIVE TRANSPORT PROBLEM SEEN EVERY SUMMER IN NON-FUNCTIONAL BOAT LIVEWELLS AND FREE STANDING BAIT TANKS.

HAVE YOU EVER REALLY WONDERED OR QUESTIONED WHAT THE ACTUAL DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN A “FUNCTIONAL LIVEWELL” AND A “NON-FUNCTIONAL LIVEWELL ?” IF THE WATER PUMP HUMS WHEN TURNED ON THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE LIVEWELL IS A FUNCTIONAL LIVEWELL

THIS IS A “FUNCTIONAL LIVEWELL” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livewell

Functional livewells insure continuous safe water quality (specifically continuous safe DO Saturation/DO Concentration). A non function livewell cannot insure minimal safe water quality (minimal safe DO Saturation/DO Concentration) for hours of live transports when the livewell is overstocked by 1 tournament fish of a few ounces of live bait.

Hypoxic water quality and summer bait problems are fixable with supplemental oxygen (O2).

Oxygen, air, oxygenation, aeration, air pumps pump oxygen are common words fishermen, outdoor writers, salesmen and pseudo experts, advertisement and infomercials use often and interchangeably every summer (June-August when the livewell water gets hot (>78 F) and the death and dying in livewells and bait tanks begin… livewell suffocation is not only common every summer in livewells and bait tanks, oxygen deprivation and sustained suffocation is predictable every summer in all overcrowded livewells and bait tanks worldwide every summer.

Ambient air is a major limiting DO water quality factor in all summer live transports. More live bait, large tournament limits always demands more dissolve oxygen in livewell water. Suffocation is imminent without a continuous supply of oxygen of safe volume, concentration and saturation. 100% DO Saturation in livewell water containing heavy stocking densities of live bait or tournament game fish is the professional Gold Standard for all live fish transports. *100% DO Saturation in livewells and bait tanks containing no fish or live bait is meaningless.

100% DO Saturation has been the profession live transport Gold Standard for all Federal, State and private fish hatchery live transports world-wide. It makes no difference if the stocking density is 1 fish, 1 lb. of fish or live bait or 1000 fish or 1000 lbs. of fish or live bait, the professional DO Gold Standard remains the same for all live transports. It is always 100% DO Saturation or DO Supersaturation.

FACT: In the summer, new humming livewell pumps and electrical aerator motors running continuously in a boat livewell does not and will never insure that the DO Saturation is safe and the livewell is a “Functional Livewell” when live fish or live are placed in the livewell for hours of live transports either. Mechanical aeration, ambient air and even the largest volume livewell water pumps will not insure 100% DO Saturation is any boat livewell or bait tank that is overstocked.

Target game fish are always listening and humming livewell pump noise travels great distances under water: Your livewell water pump/air pump is running fine, humming, pumping water and the aerator is singing, making millions of tiny hot ambient air bubbles in the livewell water while your tournament C&R fish and live bait is suffocating, getting sicker, red nose, lethargic and dying minute by minute in the deathwell. The tournament officials have your entry fees and of course, an official has heard the livewell pump running and officially certified your boat livewell a “Functional Livewell.” The tournament official assumes the boat livewell as “Functional” with -0- fish in the livewell because the aerator or water pump is humming when turned on.

Safe, sustained livewell water quality is what actually makes any livewell or bait tank “functional.” If the livewell contains live bait or tournament fish and the DO is actually tested and the dissolved oxygen test of that livewell water is found NOT SAFE… be assured that that livewell IS NOT FUNCTIONAL.

Summer livewell mortality is here again right on time, predictable. It’s July, water temps are 80F and rising…there’s plenty air and water going into your livewell, but your water quality is bad, it is hypoxic. Plenty of air and water, but your livewell full of bait or tournament fish contains low – no oxygen. Hypoxia is the Reaper that’s suffocating and killing your tournament fish and live bait, summer is always predictable. And, every live bait fishermen and tournament fisherman knows and will tell you the summer livewell problem is low/no oxygen in livewell water.

We casually use the two words oxygen and air interchangeably. We hear these words and read these words in fishing articles all the time. We know the problem is low/no oxygen yet we continue to give our bait more air, more water flushed through the livewells always hoping that more air and more water will insure more dissolved oxygen, but more air and more water never solves the los oxygen problem in the summer when the livewell contains live bait or live fish. Many fishery biologists tell fishermen the same thing, you need more oxygen in you livewell water in the summer, pump more air, use bigger livewell pumps, more water flushjng through your livewell, you need ice, livewell chemicals… hydrogen peroxide!… and all these recommendations never works in the summer.

THE REAL SCIENCE IS NOT FISHERMAN “BRO-SCIENCE”

NEVER CONFUSE OXYGEN WITH AMBIENT AIR – LIFE SUPPORT

OXYGEN – what is it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen

AIR – what is it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth’s_atmosphere

Nitrogen – what is it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen

Air is a mixture of these 16 different gases:

Constituent	Chemical symbol	Mole percent
Nitrogen	N₂	78.084
Oxygen	O₂	20.947
Argon	Ar	0.934
Carbon dioxide	CO₂	0.0350
Neon	Ne	0.001818
Helium	He	0.000524
Methane	CH₄	0.00017
Krypton	Kr	0.000114
Hydrogen	H₂	0.000053
Nitrous oxide	N₂O	0.000031
Xenon	Xe	0.0000087
Ozone*	O₃	trace to 0.0008
Carbon monoxide	CO	trace to 0.000025
Sulfur dioxide	SO₂	trace to 0.00001
Nitrogen dioxide	NO₂	trace to 0.000002
Ammonia	NH₃	trace to 0.0000003

The chart makes the SCIENTIFIC FACTS simple to see and easy to understand; why oxygen (supplemental pure 100% oxygen ) is superior to Mother Nature’s Air and mechanical aeration if and when sustained safe livewell oxygenation is the primary livewell water quality goal every summer.

Electrical aerators and water pumps using an air entrainment venturi’s and spray bars will aerate livewell water with ambient air, not oxygen. Air is often confused and misrepresented and misunderstood as oxygen.

FACT: The primary application of mechanical aeration used during live fish transports is simply to off-gas dissolved CO2 and ammonia gas in live haul water, i.e. fish tanks, boat livewells and bait tanks.

The Oxygen Edge ™ is the original commercial fishing oxygen-injection system fishermen use to supplement livewell water with the correct dose of pure 100% compressed welding oxygen.

FISH HATCHERY DO STANDARDS FOR LIVE FISH TRANSPORTS: Optimum sustained dissolved oxygen saturation for live fish and live bait transports is 100% – 150% DO Saturation continuously. This DO insures continuous safe oxygenation for the stocking density whether the density is 1 lb. or 1,000 lbs. of live fish or live bait being transported for hours or days to the other side of the world. The requires “safe dose” of oxygen is adjusted to total stocking density being transported in livewell, bait tanks or live haul tanks. More bait/fish (larger stocking densities) always requires more oxygen (not more air) for safe transport water quality for all the bait and fish being transported.

Many fishing articles, fishermen and some biologists are often unclear and may be very misleading when it comes to talking and writing about these different gases (O2, N2, ambient air). How often have you read in fishing magazines or heard fishermen, a biologist, fishing tournament official or salesman tell you that, “more aeration or bigger water pumps will ensure more oxygen and better livewell oxygenation,” or something similar. The glaring fact that will not go away is that pumping more water and more aeration does not and will never ensure minimal safe oxygenation in any livewell or bait tank that is overstocked at any time of the year, especially in the summer.

The only reason that fish hatcheries always transport live fish with pure compressed oxygen or liquid oxygen (LOX) is to ensure that their transport water quality will never fall below 100% dissolved oxygen saturation, whether they are transporting one fish (like Texas Parks & Wildlife Department [bass] Lunker Program) or hauling 10,000 fish for a one hour overland trip or a three day trip hauling live fish from Florida to Texas.

It’s easy to confuse air with oxygen and nitrogen because these gases are all colorless, odorless and tasteless and they all make clear bubbles in livewell water.

Now you have read this web page and you should know the difference between oxygen, ambient air and nitrogen.

When your bait or fish are dying in your livewell in the summer from low/no oxygen, consider adding supplemental oxygen to your livewell water and flush your livewell water twice daily to control metabolic toxins.

Success transporting live aquatic animals is really so simple… provide safe doses of supplemental 100% oxygen continuously, maintain minimal safe DO Saturations (100% DO Sat.) continuously with pure oxygen and change the livewell water a couple time daily.

There’s nothing to it…