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This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Angling and the Food Chain
The rest is just PR spin to make what we do more acceptable to the urban masses, that would happily see us go the way of the chaps in red coats that ride horses.
Wrong. The vast majority of the public do not mind us guys at all, just see us as harmless eccentrics.
You don't need to be as abstract as to examine our baits to question our ethics and the "I care more than you" fish care arms race. The simple fact that we stick hooks in fish ensures hypocrisy if we shout too loudly about conservation and fish care. The best thing we could possibly do to aid fish care would be to desist in sticking hooks in them.
You are confusing fish welfare with conservation, Sam. We all do our best to keep our individual fish as healthy as possible, but that's not what the comment was about; it's about preserving biodiversity - a much more important aim.
I'm not confusing them, (hence "conservation and fish care") I just feel that they are inextricably linked in the mindset of modern angling. Part and parcel of the same effort to prove to the wider world just how much we care.
You may well be right, Sam, but it's time we all divorced the two permanently. We certainly seem to think a pond full of stocked carp is a more healthy fishery than a river with a natural stock of fish. Like saying a chicken farm is a better place to go birdwatching because you can't fail to see birds.
"Of course, the halibut pellets we use on the hook are made from fishmeal, too, so even if we don’t fish for trout, we contribute to the demise of ‘baitfish’ stocks when we go barbel and carp fishing. And now there’s a new entrant to the angling market which undermines our claim to be ethical."
Now come on, I wonder just how many (or is that how few) hundreds or thoudands of tonnes get used by anglers in the course of a year as pellets?
I would suggest that compared to the mountains of illegally caught, or hoovered up fishy resources just in Europe alone it would be a lot less than your example of a drop in a bucket.
Even if I used pellet, which only happens probably twice a year, I certainly wouldn't be worried about the priciples to be totally honest.
There are far more important things on this imperfect earth to become a Travel Agent for Guilt Trips about Mark.
"Of course, the halibut pellets we use on the hook are made from fishmeal, too, so even if we don’t fish for trout, we contribute to the demise of ‘baitfish’ stocks when we go barbel and carp fishing. And now there’s a new entrant to the angling market which undermines our claim to be ethical."
Now come on, I wonder just how many (or is that how few) hundreds or thoudands of tonnes get used by anglers in the course of a year as pellets?
I would suggest that compared to the mountains of illegally caught, or hoovered up fishy resources just in Europe alone it would be a lot less than your example of a drop in a bucket.
Even if I used pellet, which only happens probably twice a year, I certainly wouldn't be worried about the priciples to be totally honest.
There are far more important things on this imperfect earth to become a Travel Agent for Guilt Trips about Mark.
If I felt guilty about my fishing then I would pack it in we go fishing for our own enjoyment and that is a end to it. What we do as anglers is up to us as individuals. Why worry what other people think and do just do your own thing.
Mark I see and recognise the laudable issue and points you are trying to make, but here’s the problem for the ethical angler who may not wish to contribute further to the problem.
There is fishmeal out there that comes from sustainable sources, after all it’s waste product that can’t be sold as fish product for human consumption, but we are denied information by the manufacturers, suppliers, tackle trade and shops out there, which it is and whether they are partly, whole using it.
This might be our fault as the body angling for not asking where the pellet we us comes from. Sustainable or unsustainable sources and refusing the latter to bring pressure down on the tackle shops and trade to source only pellet from the former.
As we know consumer pressure if targeted in coherent way changes attitudes throughout the whole chain of products. Hugh Fernley being a case in point as far as fish go.
One for the ATr and HFW perhaps?
If I felt guilty about my fishing then I would pack it in we go fishing for our own enjoyment and that is a end to it. What we do as anglers is up to us as individuals. Why worry what other people think and do just do your own thing.