The Close Season Debate and Angling in Paradise: Baldwin’s Blog

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Am I alone in finding it hard to reconcile Lewis Baldwin's obvious love of river fishing and the notion of fishing in a large pond stocked with imported fish?

I know Stu Gillham and I wish him well with his venture. Nor do I want to stop anyone enjoying fishing in Thailand for South American fish. But there is an ethical dimension to this.

We all know the damage that has been wrought on the natural world by alien species, from signal crayfish to zebra mussels, killer shrimps in Grafham to mink. In general, the introduction of alien species almost invariably turns to environmental damage and even complete loss of native fauna.

I know Stu's fishery is an enclosed stillwater from which it is extremely unlikely that anything will escape. Except perhaps a south American fish parasite that came with the arapaima or the catfish. Or perhaps the larvae of some insect that arrived in the water. Or a bacterium which doesn't belong in Thailand. With no natural defence against these things, the potential for disaster seems to me to be a problem.

Currently, our trees are struggling to cope with a number of diseases which have arrived with foreign garden plants, and it's likely that we will lose more than half of our wild oaks and perhaps all of our ash trees. Moving species across the globe is a bad thing.

Sure, I fish for rainbow trout and carp; those genies are out of the bottle. But that's no reason for mankind to continue what has been a process which has damaged lakes and rivers the world over.

MarkTheSpark said:

Am I alone in finding it hard to reconcile Lewis Baldwin's obvious love of river fishing and the notion of fishing in a large pond stocked with imported fish?

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No Mark, you are certainly not alone.

I also have problems with these "aquarium" styled fishing trips, as they remind me of something like Angler's Paradise gone mad, not to mention the potential environmental problems that are attendant with these sorts of ventures.

The concept was lost... is it a bit like 'canned' fishing?

Can't see the problem with these fisheries after all they are in a foreign clime with foreign rules regarding stocking consents and stocking levels, and are no different than F1s being tipped into many of this country's waters for the pleasure of British anglers bagging up.

You have to admit, he's got a point.

To my mind this is nothing more than "Trophy Fishing" similar to what those well-heeled tourists did in the sub Continent back in the day with the exception that then it was more wild.

These fish are virtually aquarium specimens that have learned to enjoy having their pictures taken . . . . . .

Isn't all specimen hunting or match fishing by definition trophy hunting?

Unless one is in the position where one can fish virgin waters for uncaught fish all one is doing is following recommendations and fishing for known fish or populations of fish.

All this is doing is raising the bar on commercial fisheries to another level while bringing the opportunity of catching exotic specimens in stunning surroundings into the price range of the man on the Clapham omnibus.

Titus said:

Isn't all specimen hunting or match fishing by definition trophy hunting?

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Not really, no.

The way I see this is that anywhere in the UK we can all go and catch the same species, nothing really out of the ordinary, and the chances of a "pleasure" angler catching fish of enormous proportions is pretty low.

Over there though these geographically different species have been brough together and placed in an aquarium-type of venue with the sole intention of providing Trophy fish and Photo opportunities.

All of which is fine and dandy if one is that way inclined, and as I've often said, each to their own, just for me it is not attractive.

Zoos, eh? Terrible when the last of the wild turns up and spoils one's silly little day out...

BBC News - India Nandankanan zoo shut after wild tiger intrusion