In my experience i have found that the lower section of the stomach bulges,much like the photo,just slightly rounder.I also find the females i catch are usually not the big fish and tend to be an average of 5-8kg.The bulge is quite noticeable whether you are holding the fish as in the picture or horizontally.Also depending on how they target the fish they should not target schools huddled together but rather fish around such areas as the males tend to be very active around the huddling schools looking for the action.I must add though that a single female can lay as many as 500 000 eggs of which 2/300000 can hatch succesfully.I think more than trying to put back egg carrying fish they might just change strategy.If they fish the shallows grassy areas by foot rather target by boat or the likes so as not to trample over the already laid eggs which could be in the millions in the shallows.
I am no scientist but merely my thoughts on this.I have a study at home regarding the cultivation of the species and will see if i can come up with a real answer.I do however believe that if they do end up gutting the odd female it is not gonna affect populations to a major extent due to the nature (productivity)of the species,but for the long term use of them they really only have to start looking more closely at their habits to determine differnt approaches at different times of year.
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