More angler bashing

I see that both the Times and Telegraph this morning (note: NOT the "bunny-hugging" Guardian!) have reported the results of this recent scientific paper as "evidence" that catch-and-release fishing is cruel:

Angling-induced injuries have a negative impact on suction feeding performance and hydrodynamics in marine shiner perch, Cymatogaster aggregata | Journal of Experimental Biology

And in The Independent: Anglers’ catch-and-release method stops fish feeding properly, study finds

Don't click on the links it's just click bait

It just says ten fish caught on hook and line, doesn't say whether its an Aberdeen with a dirty great big barb or a tiny barbless, or what tackle was used, whether the fish were lifted or landed.

It refers to holes in mouths affecting suction and that's about it, what's all that about what are they doing to these fish to leave holes.

All that's being report is the "Abstract" of the paper. An abstract is a very short "Summary" of a whole paper. Difficult to form an opinion from an abstract for us. Have the press read the whole paper? Emmmmm I doubt it! The press report, dare I suggest, is written to the paper view regarding angling.

As always with these papers the devil is in the detail! Detail we don't have other than it was done on 10 hooked fish and 10 of a control group that hadn't been hooked.
Hardly a mass study to base a swinging claim that catch and release is cruel!

Anybody got a full copy of the paper?

The bad one said:

Anybody got a full copy of the paper?

Click to expand...

In common with most scientific journals, the only way to access the full text of the contents (other than by personal subscription) is via an academic library, or a public library if you want to pay for an inter-library-loan. The problem is that these days, the only way to advance a career in academia is to get papers published in journals with a high "impact factor". All this results in is a mass of essentially useless data that proves little or nothing. The real damage is done by the news media latching on to what looks like a sensational discovery or a wonder cure for something when it's usually nothing of the sort. Looking on the bright side, a lot of people these days routinely disregard anything they hear or read that comes from an "expert"...

Dave I was hoping against hope may be we had a Uni Student or Lecturer on here that had access to BIDS (Biological Information Data Services). and could download the full paper for free. As to the rest, I wouldn't disagree with what you're wrote.

On more than one occasion I've had the same fish more than once in a single session, clearly it didn't do the fish any harm if it was back feeding on the same bait, in the same spot within the hour.