If you’re fishing, it should be for food. Otherwise, the only thing you’re doing is poking holes in fish for fun and that’s messed up.

What that guy above me said.

As if fishing wasn’t boring and pointless enough already…

:)

Personally, I always eat what I catch and I don’t practice catch and release, but I have no problem with people who do.

If we need to catch fish, then we might as well go all the way. It does seem quite meaningless to simply release the fish once it is caught. Such a practice could be harmful to particular fish species as well, especially those in the deep ocean and those with dwindling numbers already. Also, there is just something wrong with leaving hooks in fish (which I know doesn’t always happen). Sure the recreation could create revenue for some people in certain areas, but it seems like something that creates more trouble than it’s worth.

When people use catch and release as a free pass (“See, I’m putting it back – no harm, no foul!”), I have a problem with it. Even the most obtuse must recognize the stress and damage that being hooked and reeled in creates.

It upsets me even reading this.

As I know people that ended up in that accident will not release their fish since they know that fish with hook stuck in its mouth won’t make it if they release it. So people eat them but if it’s some kind of protected fish then they’re obliged to pay certain necessary fine for their action. I myself will only support this catch and release for endangered/rare/protected kind of fish. People that fish for sport won’t over-exploit fish source in nature,it’s large fish department that responsible for it. So,we shouldn’t waste that tasty and valuable meat.

It’s cruelty. These released fish could easily become infected and die so you have killed them. you put a hole in their face.

I have no problem with it, really. The fish goes on to live a full, happy fishy life.

In some cases, there’s not much choice. Endangered fish, I imagine, you would have to throw back.

Yeah, I never really got this either. I mean I did and I didn’t.
My ex husband was an extremist fly fisherman, and I could understand the art of old, and the matching the hatch of whatever insects the fish were hitting on that day, but…I never thought that ripping the gills out of a trout and then throwing them back was very cool. Okay..true, sometimes it was just a hook in the lip, but still…..

But then you have to throw back undersized fish no matter how they are caught anyway.

A mixed bag for me, but in general I don’t think we should be killing or maiming anything for ‘sport.’

Survival yes, otherwise just go to Safeway and buy a damn fish.

I know, I know…let someone else do my killing for me…well…what can I say? lol

I think it’s stupid because you’re putting a huge hole in the poor thing’s lip! Just to let it go simming around bleedig o.O

Imagine a flying saucer with aliens reeling you in with a meat hook up your arse, letting you dangle on the hook 20000m above the ground, the alien then tells you “it’s just for my amusement lol”, then throws you into a haystack where you continue to bleed profusely for several hours and now tell me you would not be pissed.

How sentient are fish anyway?

@ragingloli
Protip: people != fish.

@Nullo
You are right. Fish > People.
Interesting how the morals of moral absolutists become relative because something else is not like them

All life is sentient…I am still pissed off because my neighbors chopped down this amazing like 400 year old Heritage Oak because a branch fell on the brick pillar to their driveway!

A 400 yr. old tree destroyed over a couple hundred dollars of bricks…and….the pillars wern’t even damaged, just tipped one a bit askew off it’s foundation and it was put back in place. Grrrrr…..

@Coloma, how do you know? Do trees have EEG measurements? What about fish?

All life is sentient

Uh, no it’s not. A plant is not conscious…neither is a protozoan.

@DominicX, that’s what I was thinking.

Life is life…you use your measuring stick and I’ll use mine.

How do you know a plant is not conscious?

What about all the experiments about talking to plants and their reactions…loving vibes give loving vibes back, regardless?

Alrighty.

@Coloma

Life is life, but not all life is sentient. Life does not imply sentience. Anything I could find on plants sensing vibrations has little scientific backing and for the most part is considered pseudoscience.

http://plantphys.info/music.shtml

Okay. One point for science..another for ego. lol ;-)

There have also been experiments where a group of monks have prayed over bodies of polluted water and significant and swift changes have occured in the levels of toxins. It’s a mystery…all of it.

@Coloma, for some reason, I’m really doubting the veracity of that experiment.

Well…science does doubt…what else is new? lolol

Just tossing a bit more fodder on the fire…why not?

I am not saying it IS true, I am not saying it ISN’T true…thats the point…we really know nothing for sure!

When I was in college they hooked up plants to sensors and played soothing lullaby type music in one room and heavy metal in the other, same everything else. You know which room had the bigger, healthier plants.

@faye

That doesn’t mean they’re conscious and “liked” the music. Sound waves can have a physical effect on things.

@faye
I think it is more likely that the stronger sound waves had a detrimental effect on the plant’s chemistry, like shattering cell walls, etc, than that the plant hated the music.

@ragingloli, correct.

@faye, also, this

You guys will never make good hippies. Of course the soothing music encouraged the plants to grow~

Well..whatever I am doing, how green are my pastures! lol

When I was 21 and in school in San Diego, I had a ‘pet’ cockroach that lived under my toaster. All his/her comrades fell prey to the numerous roach hotels, but this one…he actually would take a bread crumb from my hand..we had a ‘relationship’! lololol

I beleive that we get exactly what we give…time, attention, caring, and I absoloutly believe that ANYTHING will respond to thus!

I think it’s disgusting. In that it is morally reprehensible.

Catch and release fishing is done with hooks that have no barbs.

I prefer to keep fish that are edible and legal to keep because fish is a healthy source of protein. Any fish I keep is quickly and humanely killed immediately. I never put fish on a stringer alive.

If I catch something I can’t legally keep, 95% of the time I can remove the hook with minimal damage to the fish and they will survive.

If they are not viable to release then I keep them and count them as part of my quota.

I live on a modest disability income. Fish I catch supplement my diet.

I believe catch and release fishing can be part of humane and responsible fishing.
It takes someone who is responsible and humane.

@Dr_Lawrence I am saddened to tell you that you are one in a million (putting aside all arguments I can come up with to say that what you do is till not responsible) and that the way it’s actually done in terms of the modern fishing industry is a far cry from what you describe and that the numbers of organisms wasted and killed just so that people can get some salmon or shrimp are astounding and should be criminalized.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Why not? and later you wonder how sentient fish are, anyway – that’s an interesting question? what do you think? and if they aren’t as sentient as you, do they deserve worse things?
@Nullo you said “The fish goes on to live a full, happy fishy life” how do you know this? ever tried it? the hook in your eye thing? (yes yes fish aren’t people but it’s not up to you to use animals as if you own em)

It’d be weird if we tazed deer and then let them go right? The whole “animals are our play things” issue is a pretty big one.

Touche! JeanPaul….I love analogy..always drives the point home!

Thanks @Coloma

@Simone_De_Beauvoir
Fish don’t exactly have far to go to lead a fishy, fulfilling life. Stuck through the eye might make things difficult, but not getting stuck through the mouth.

@JeanPaulSartre Conservation officers and game wardens catch and release deer quite a bit. Helps manage populations.
—Deer tazing has certain practical limitations, like range. (You cannot taze anything at 300yds). And I can all but guarantee that someone has tried it. I’ll have to ask next time I go hunting.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir, you and many others may think I’m a hopelessly ignorant barbarian for thinking this, but I don’t think that fish are anywhere nearly as sentient as more highly evolved animals, like deer (I would never hunt deer unless I needed the food) or humans (I don’t plan on hunting humans, even for food), and therefore, it’s not really that big of a deal to kill them (not that I would advocate putting them on the rack or in the thumbscrews just for shits and giggles).

I ask how sentient fish are because I wonder if they are self-aware, have a consciousness, dreams, etc. Stuff that we typically use as a measuring stick for how “existent” something is, cognitively. I’ve never seen any evidence to suggest that fish are anything more than… well.. fish, but your mileage may vary.

@Nullo I just want evidence that getting cut through the mouth doesn’t matter – hey you know what else doesn’t matter, to me? People gaining pleasure out of other living things for no good purpose.
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I didn’t call you that nor was I thinking it. I just wanted to know what makes it okay, in your mind, to not care about others doing catch and release fishing (I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t care, everyone knows my opinion)...it is important to define what is more or less sentient but even more interesting, to me, is to understand the relationship between that definition and what’s okay in terms of human action.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir, sorry If I came off as kind of bitchy with the barbarian comment. That wasn’t really meant as a jab, just a caveat. I don’t mind if other people practice catch and release because I don’t think it’s really any of my business, coupled with my thoughts on sentience that I outlined previously. I fish a bit, and I always eat what I catch. I just think that catch and release is potentially a bit wasteful.

To understand my point of view a bit better, it’s important to notice that I’m a bit of a Rooseveltian conservationist.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard We can say no actions of other people that don’t hurt anyone are our business but I guess fish, to me, matter because I just hate the arrogance of it, the sport of it.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir
It’s not like they’re jamming hooks into mouths for fun.

Have you ever had a hamster? They are quite possibly the most useless pet on the planet. We keep cats for their company (and in the past, for their mousing), we keep dogs for company and some security. We keep hamsters solely for their entertainment value. Dry up some.

@Nullo If it’s not for fun, what is it for? I have had many many hamsters when I was little but I never considered animal rights, the environment, etc until much much later. And we didn’t hurt the hamsters and just because you can’t find a good counter argument, you don’t have to tell me to ‘dry up some’ – or I’ll tell you the same thing when you’ll yet again bring up your anti-abortion and god knows what else views because of your religion – the same thing, I’m assuming, that allows you, man, to rule over animals cause that’s what god said?

I have eaten all hamsters I have owned and I treated them with respect all the time.

@ragingloli lol, I didn’t even want to laugh but I did

@Simone_De_Beauvoir
My point is that the fun is the fishing, not the hook-jamming. Otherwise the sport would be “hook jamming” and not “fishing”.
You were griping about ”People gaining pleasure out of other living things for no good purpose.” I merely provided examples of animals that we keep for good reasons and those that we keep for the fun.

Incidentally, I believe that we have been assigned stewardship over God’s other creations. This means that we get to use ‘em sometimes.

@Nullo I got that point – I know it’s not the intention to hook the fish but since that part is a by-product of this operation, doesn’t that matter? I am not Christian, but I believe in a quite a lot more stewardship over animals then some. We have domesticated some animals, yes – now we have used animals for food and all that…these days everything in terms of the latter is out of control and everything in terms of cats and hamsters…well, it’s about taking care of them, isn’t it?

I think that Kurt Cobain said it the best when he sang, “It’s okay to eat fish ‘cuz they don’t have any feelings.”

I’m also curious as to how many of you anti-catch and release folks have aquariums at home?

@Blondesjon I’ve had some fish back in the day – I failed them, they died, I felt badly for months. But I want to understand you more – are you saying that keeping fish in the aquarium is the same as hooking them through the eyes, getting them up from their habitat into the air and then randomly chucking them back? And if it is the same, in your mind, should people not be against catch and release if they have pets but they should be for catch and release if they do? Basically, just because something like an aquarium is in some people’s home, we should be okay with random things like catch and release fishing because both of these have a fish involved?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . . It is what it is.

Is the act of hooking them in sport any different than the species that scientists pull from the abyss, to their ultimate doom, in the name of research?

@Blondesjon I have further questions – I think that having an aquarium tank is a good reason for not liking catch and release fishing because it forces you to interact with fish in a way that doesn’t allow you to forget about their being. I think it’s a good way for our kids to interact with animals when there are so little chances of that out there. As for the scientific research, well..we hope to achieve something with that research…yes it is for the good of mankind and I do realize that puts us above the fish and so I am ambivalent…but the catch and release doesn’t bring forth any good…and when comparing anything to fish caught for scientific research…what we do to fish through the fish industry is much much worse…we’re talking different levels of influences…we’re affecting entire ecosystems these days, wiping out species like nothing…I just randomly stumbled on this.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . . I think that having an aquarium tank is a good reason for not liking catch and release fishing because it forces you to interact with fish in a way thatdoesn’t allow you to forget about their being.

Would you like to live the rest of your life in a glass walled cage so that species other than us can be forced to interact with you?

@Blondesjon No, I wouldn’t – that’s why we don’t have aquariums. Do you? Or are you just saying all of this but you really don’t care? I will stand by my opinion that having fish in the aquarium is better (whatever that means) than hooking them in the eye.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . . As a living, sentient, creature, that dwells upon this planet, I would prefer to live one eyed and free than as a fully sighted prisoner, dispossessed of the world I am accustomed to.

Life, for every single creature upon this planet, is a daily struggle. Who is it that made you sooo important that you can decide which form of dominion over life is proper?

@Blondesjon I am not important. Neither are people that practice catch and release. Why do you side with them?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . . that is nonsensical and argumentative

@Blondesjon I don’t think it is either of those things – I am not arguing with you, I believe a lot of of what you say is right. You still haven’t taken a stand for or against. I guess, at the end of the day, we can leave it that I believe it to be a harmful thing and you don’t.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir . . . duh

@Blondesjon well, thanks for making me think through some of this. I welcome more discussion on these topics…we should all be challenged as to our habits…I just don’t feel the need to lump all behaviors into one basket..we, as families, do what we can…we, as vegans, don’t always (knowingly or not) follow perfect veganism but that doesn’t make us hypocrites…I know that’s what you are often worried about…just because we speak out against something we don’t like doesn’t mean any argument thereafter has to shine a magnifying glass upon us for our practices because we make an effort to care, we make an effort to consider our actions and just like you, we bear the responsibility…we wouldn’t fish and release – that’s first…whether or not that’s the same as owning aquariums or whether or not we should care what others do…well those are separate areas of inquiry..and we should go there…

Eh. I’m ambivalent. My husband’s family are all big fishermen. His dad and granddaddy fish for trout, take them home, and fry them up. My husband does that, he also does fly fishing and he does catch & release bass fishing. If he catches trout, he sends them home with his granddaddy. This is how he relaxes.

On the other hand, I’m not sure how I feel about trophy fishing. It wasn’t intentional, but the caught a state record musky and is damn proud of that. There was question of any of us ever eating that.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir When are you going to get with the program and realize might makes right? Since we can control another creature’s destiny it’s our right to do so…

You can’t be serious…scary!

@FutureMemory yeah, fuck the program (and I know you don’t mean it, either ~)

@Coloma I’m not serious :)

Catch and Release is not nearly as bad as the people who kill and taxidermy. Then hang it on their wall like a trophy. I am or at least once was a hunter and a fisher. I do not care if people practice “catch and release” really. I just don’t understand the trophy status of a dead animal, be it fish, deer or bear.

@judochop Isn’t it to take pride in your conquest?

I work in home design and this is a true story.
The story of “Duckman.” lol

Had a re-do on home for an elderly man who had literally about 400 mounted ducks in his house. A very nice custom home that needed some upgrading. I kid you not, there were Ducks suspended by fishing line from the ceilings, ducks on logs, ducks in reeds, ducks standing, flapping. laying down, standing on one foot, heads tucked under their wings.

There was every kind of Duck immaginable and the coupe de grace?
A flipping HUGE, Canadian Goose ‘soaring’ with wings fully spread dangling from the second floor.

And..thats not ALL…hahaha
Had created this ‘sunset’ Duck background on a wet bar, about 6×6 backlit with crazy orange lights and 3D Ducks flying over a grassy river.

It was INSANE! Took us 3 weeks to get all the Ducks put away, owner kept getting upset when we wanted to move his Ducks, haha Kept saying ‘Whats WRONG with my Ducks! ’ Um..nothing, but if you want to sell this home, trust us, the Ducks need to migrate!

OMG…I called it ‘House of a 1000 Ducks.’ lolol

That job is forever branded into our archives of crazy stories! haha

@Coloma
is your ‘i’ key broken?

@ragingloli bwaaahhha

@ragingloli Classic.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I guess so. I just don’t see much of a conquest when hunting a deer (least harmless animal in the woods next to a bunny) with a bolt action rifle. Covering yourself in stud piss, camouflage and resting in a tree does not make it very hard to kill anything. I get it, I just think it is silly. My grandfathers house looked like a shop of horrors. The walls were covered in everything from large fish to fox to deer, elk, bear and even a home made jackalope.

@judochop you’re preaching to the choir, my love – I think it’s stupid

@ragingloli I don’t get it,—sigh

@faye replace the u’s…

@faye with i’s

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

@ragingloli @JeanPaulSartre Thank you! lol!

House of 1000 dicks? Dicks hanging from the ceiling?

Calgon take me away!