.......... Whether I choose to partake or not will effect no difference unless I can convince a majority of my fellow would-be customers to avoid........
I guess you need to draw a line in the sand somewhere, appreciating that you cannot be for something while against it also.
Surely if you are knowing something is not particularly right but have no impetus to change it, that would be called turning a blind eye? Profiteering from it is something beneath even that, all a matter of principle.
Such boycotts are practically impossible to engineer since people are largely driven by personal self interest.
Where do people get their personal self interest from if its not from a medium or organized exchange of information telling them what to fish for and where?
Well said Ray.
How many people keep fish in tanks or plastic/rubber lined ponds, hardly natural environments.
That is another false justification for stocking Barbel into still waters.
"Lot's of people do A,B or C so that makes it ok to do D", the popularity/high percentage V's reasoned minority type argument.
Where do you draw the line?
---------- Post added at 15:57 ---------- Previous post was at 15:35 ----------
Why do people put fish on a pedestal, as if its sacrilege to put them in an environment that isn't natural to them.
I don't hear too many complaining over them being stocked into southern rivers where they had never previously lived or Rainbow trout being introduced into rivers and stillwaters.
Provided they are not removed from rivers what difference does it make? the're only fish FFS not some sort of minor god to be worshipped and revered.
The difference is exploitation which is quite clearly marked Ray.
What difference does it make to Hens made to produce eggs for people who see pound signs in their sleep?
Easy, its the amount of feather loss, disease and shortened longevity of the Hen (call it suffering or misery or something...) that is allowed before its actually called cruelty as opposed to how many eggs the Hen could actually produce per annum if it was looked after properly and its needs were not neglected.....
For what purpose would a Barbel find its way into a commercial fishery? What need will the Barbel in ponds with a silt bottom have for its barbules or for that matter where will they be expected to spawn? Some female Barbel have been documented to have travelled upto 20km to find suitable spawning grounds/substrait.......should we stock Barbel so that when the drive to spawn kicks in annually they can go through all the effort just to allow the Carp to mop up the eggs that have been deserving of all their energy leading upto that moment......and get even fatter.....now that 's progress!
A line has to be drawn somewhere.
