Wolfgang wrote:
Tom Littleton wrote:
given that PETA is largely a laughing-stock in the general public, with
little or no traction for their ideas, I would say
(as I did when you stated this stuff 7 years ago or more),
it is VERY unlikely. I merely look around my PA local area at prevalent
attitudes and see two key trends:

1. The tradition of angling is still strong, and pressure to preserve waters
for fishing is still strong

Pressure to preserve (and rehabilitate) waters is getting stronger
daily......despite the appalling (if not surprising) lack of leadership
at the level of national governments. Even "business" is
coming.....however belatedly and reluctantly.....to the inexpicably
correct conclusion that preservation and restoration is in its own best
interests both in the near and the long terms. Of course, none of this
is necessarily related to our own self-interested reasons, but fishing
(for whatever purpose and by most common methods) has traditionally
resonated strongly with the general populace wherever it has been a
common practice.....a few notable exceptions (like the current societal
dementia in Germany) notwithstanding, and continues to do so to this
day. It does, and it will continue to, strike a powerful atavistic
chord in the human psyche.

On the other hand, there is an increasing tendency in technologically
and economically hyperdeveloped cultures to Disnefy the animal
kingdom.....or, at least those members of it that can in any way be
rendered as cute. Fish, or some of them anyway, qualify. Well, this
too shall pass. At any rate, it's just a symptom of something larger.
Western culture has long forgotten its origins in the natural
world.....and it has recently transmitted this disregard to its *******
offspring in the rest of the world, just in time for what may become a
sea change in humanity's view of its relationships with the rest of the
animate world. We hope so, anyway. Otherwise we're ****ing doomed
along with the fish. Either way, what we do to while away our leisure
time in idyllic riparian settings will be around for a couple more
generations and then, one way or another, it's over. And, either way,
the clowns at PETA have nothing to do with it

2. Aging populations will, as others suggest lead to a
diminishing pressure upon the resource to the point where
it will be a non-issue.

Not necessarily true. Recruitment in excess of expected geriatric
losses is not entirely impossible. As "Green" sensibilities burgeon
and mature (a thing much to be hoped for.....especially among those who
love the wild places where fishes thrive......right?) we could see a
huge increase in the numbers of those itching to get outside and enjoy
the benfits of their efforts to save the world. Where to go but the
woods and fileds and streams? And what to do when you get there?
Well, it has be something in keeping with the sensibilities of those
who have saved it for themselves and posterity; something elegant,
something cerebral*, something sophisticated and stylish.....and
obviously so.

now, fact 2 could be used to argue that the PETA crowd will win out via
lesser resistance, but I feel much of the resistance to their agenda is in
the pure silliness of the approach and arguments. Time will tell.......

Indeed it will. And what it will tell is that these impotent and
intellectually sterile nitwits (and you may rest assured that, like the
nitwits here in ROFF, they know who and what they are.....that's why
they do what they do) are willing to settle for being knowing
caricatures of human beings.....because it's better than being nothing.
But, they're wrong; the distinction is spurious.

Wolfgang
*and we ain't talking baseball here.

Nice post Wolfman.

Up until this time I thought you were human, like the rest of us
caricatures.

Say what you will. A 26' billboard of a lipless trout sponsored by the
popular movie or rock star will certainly capture the attention of a
whole lot of urbanites, wouldn't you have to agree?

I'm not sure that I agree that "fishing strikes a powerful atavistic
chord in the human psyche" is justification enough to warrant pure
catch and release fishing. Sex too strikes a powerful atavistic chord
but we can't hump everything that moves. I do believe that it much more
difficult to argue the morality of subsistence fishing or fishing when
it benefits the health of the fishery, a la the basics of hunting
management, and I struggle with the dogma held on to by the C&R
contingent to ignore this fact.

Halfordian Golfer
Guilt replaced the creel.