Post by whitehorse on Apr 27, 2020 2:11:10 GMT
Is fishing cruel to fish?
By Richard Pierce
These type of discussions drive me crazy because the answer is: It doesn’t matter.
Humans have caught fish for thousands of years. It is a natural activity for many people. Recreational fishing is an old and legitimate sport practiced by thousands of people in the USA. Most fishermen and women are better environmentalists and conservationists than the people trying to ban fishing as cruel. Fishermen pay money to purchase fishing licenses and they pay money to register their boats, some of which goes into conservation and enforcement of wildlife laws. People fish, in part, to get out and experience and enjoy nature. They value this enough to pay to keep it available for everyone.
Asking if fishing is cruel to fish is akin to asking if putting a worm on the hook to catch the fish is cruel to the worm. It doesn’t matter, it’s a worm, it’s a fish. It it cruel to swat a fly or mosquito? Is it cruel to kill a mouse or rat that is in your house? No, it is irresponsible not to. All are disease vectors and catching and releasing any of them outside just pushes the problem onto someone else.
I have caught fish and eaten them. I have caught fish and released them. I have caught fish and kept them in an aquarium (not game fish, that is generally illegal). I have caught fish and preserved them for ichthyological research. I have euthanized sick, deformed or old aquarium fish, usually with a sharp blade severing the spine. I have also bred and put more live fish into the aquarium hobby than I have killed, caught and eaten combined. I don’t consider myself a cruel person. I would never hurt a person who didn’t deserve it and I avoid harming dogs, cats other pets and wildlife unnecessarily.
People have a right to have their own opinions, but what concerns me is when they try to force their opinions on all of us in the form of laws banning activities they don’t like. There are people trying to outlaw fishing and the keeping of aquarium fish on the grounds that it is cruel to fish. I will not try to argue that fish don’t feel pain when hooked, but I will point out that their brains are much simpler than ours and fish probably don’t have consciousness. Most people who have dogs believe that dogs “live in the moment”. They don’t brood over the past or worry about the future. A dog’s brain is much more similar to ours than a fish’s. I don’t believe that there is evidence that other than some birds and mammals, animals are no more than organic automatons. They behave as programmed by evolution with limited ability to modify behavior through experience. Once a fish is released, provided it is not gut-hooked, it quickly goes about its business as if nothing happened. When we learn that most flounders die when released, for example, we educate people to only fish for flounder if they are going to eat them. Unlike trout or bass, I believe that most people who fish for flounder intend to eat them anyway.
All that considered, I do believe it is possible to be cruel to animals, even to insects such as a fly. Swatting and killing a fly is OK, but pulling the wings off a fly is not. Keeping a fish in an aquarium is OK, but keeping a fish and not caring for it properly is not. Catching a fish and releasing it is OK, but catching a fish and throwing on the ground to die is not. Purposeful cruelty should concern us because of what it says about that person, not because a fly or a fish has rights.
By Richard Pierce
Humans have caught fish for thousands of years. It is a natural activity for many people. Recreational fishing is an old and legitimate sport practiced by thousands of people in the USA. Most fishermen and women are better environmentalists and conservationists than the people trying to ban fishing as cruel. Fishermen pay money to purchase fishing licenses and they pay money to register their boats, some of which goes into conservation and enforcement of wildlife laws. People fish, in part, to get out and experience and enjoy nature. They value this enough to pay to keep it available for everyone.
Asking if fishing is cruel to fish is akin to asking if putting a worm on the hook to catch the fish is cruel to the worm. It doesn’t matter, it’s a worm, it’s a fish. It it cruel to swat a fly or mosquito? Is it cruel to kill a mouse or rat that is in your house? No, it is irresponsible not to. All are disease vectors and catching and releasing any of them outside just pushes the problem onto someone else.
I have caught fish and eaten them. I have caught fish and released them. I have caught fish and kept them in an aquarium (not game fish, that is generally illegal). I have caught fish and preserved them for ichthyological research. I have euthanized sick, deformed or old aquarium fish, usually with a sharp blade severing the spine. I have also bred and put more live fish into the aquarium hobby than I have killed, caught and eaten combined. I don’t consider myself a cruel person. I would never hurt a person who didn’t deserve it and I avoid harming dogs, cats other pets and wildlife unnecessarily.
People have a right to have their own opinions, but what concerns me is when they try to force their opinions on all of us in the form of laws banning activities they don’t like. There are people trying to outlaw fishing and the keeping of aquarium fish on the grounds that it is cruel to fish. I will not try to argue that fish don’t feel pain when hooked, but I will point out that their brains are much simpler than ours and fish probably don’t have consciousness. Most people who have dogs believe that dogs “live in the moment”. They don’t brood over the past or worry about the future. A dog’s brain is much more similar to ours than a fish’s. I don’t believe that there is evidence that other than some birds and mammals, animals are no more than organic automatons. They behave as programmed by evolution with limited ability to modify behavior through experience. Once a fish is released, provided it is not gut-hooked, it quickly goes about its business as if nothing happened. When we learn that most flounders die when released, for example, we educate people to only fish for flounder if they are going to eat them. Unlike trout or bass, I believe that most people who fish for flounder intend to eat them anyway.
All that considered, I do believe it is possible to be cruel to animals, even to insects such as a fly. Swatting and killing a fly is OK, but pulling the wings off a fly is not. Keeping a fish in an aquarium is OK, but keeping a fish and not caring for it properly is not. Catching a fish and releasing it is OK, but catching a fish and throwing on the ground to die is not. Purposeful cruelty should concern us because of what it says about that person, not because a fly or a fish has rights.