This week I share the following letter sent to me and Highway Mail.
I cannot condone your decision to dedicate a regular article to the cruel “sport” of fishing, The Highway Mail 13 January 2017, which is almost as unacceptable as hunting. To glorify the act of luring a fish to swallow a hook concealed inside a morsel of food, yank it out of it’s natural environment by it’s mouth with it’s full weight having no support of the water, deny it it’s natural way of “breathing” for a prolonged period, rip the hook (complete with barb) out of it’s mouth causing injury, then posing with it for photographs is beyond my comprehension. To teach a child to love and respect all animals should be the norm rather than teaching them this is acceptable behaviour and fun. Then to top it all to state that the fish was returned to the water “to fight another day” is also sick as who knows what trauma that fish endured, whether the injuries inflicted healed or for how long that poor animal lived is unknown. Animal Lover. Hillcrest
Madfin responds:
Thank you for your views on the sport of angling. This makes me appreciate the views of others and an understanding of where the sport of angling is heading.
I have been involved in angling at a provincial level and we run competitions on a no kill basis. We even get penalized if the catch is not released alive and resuscitated. We do not kill our catch, but most times tag and release.
The tag and release programmes are designed to assist scientists for information they need to study migratory patterns and fish stocks. This in turn will help to create sustainable fisheries for generations to come.
Commercial fishing is a reality, as it supplies a much needed food source. If we as sport fisherman can assist to preserve fish stocks, we will find ways to help.
Most sport has some sort of effect on nature as angling does. Trees are destroyed to create cricket bats. Wild life, insects and birds suffer because their natural environment is destroyed to make way for golf courses. I could carry on and find some sort of negative impact that man has in the pursuit of the perfect sport.
We fight to stop the abuse of destroying the oceans that affects the fish that we appreciate. Sewage, chemicals, plastic and other toxins that are pouring in the ocean, destroying, what God created to be appreciated and looked after by all of mankind?
The sport of fishing (the most popular sport in the world) has people like yourself and the sports fishing fraternity, who care and fight to preserve our fish stocks and the absolute miracle creation, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SEA.
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