Scottish Fly Fisher on MSN

"Scottish Fly Fisher" schrieb im
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I couldn't agree more. As individuals, we fishermen can make a
contribution by practicing catch and release at least. However, the
environment is so out of kilter, more needs to be done at a national
and international level.

Look at the cormorant problem in the UK. Due to over-fishing at sea,
these birds are heading inland, and the effect on wild fish stocks has
been devastating in some areas.

Over use of pesticides not only screw up the insect life on which the
fish feed, but they stay in the food chain and accumulate to toxic
levels in predator species.

Unless something is done soon, all we will have to look forward to is
days of stockie bashing in muddy puddles.

John
http://groups.msn.com/scottishflyfisher
Responsible anglers catch and release.
Lose the barbs or lose the fish!

Practising catch and release is unlikely to solve any European problems at
all. Even if you took all the fish you ever caught in your life, including
undersized ones, you will never even get close to a fraction of the amount
in one trawl, or drift net. Alone the fish being taken from the sea to
produce pellets and similar material is in the millions of tonnes, and
increasing daily. This is completely destroying whole food chains, beyond
hope of recovery in a reasonable time scale.

The cormorant problem is not only a result of overfishing at sea, but
because the birds are protected. Populations have increased massively since
these birds were placed under protection.

Pesticides are a considerably lesser problem than fertiliser!

Many anglers nowadays, especially in the UK and various parts of Europe,
spend their lives looking forward to "days of stockie bashing in muddy
puddles". Fishing for fish which have been raised at an incredible loss
ratio, on wild protein obtained at the cost of massive and in the meantime
irreparable damage to the environment. This is quite apart from the
horrendous damage and wastage engendered by various other fish farming
projects world wide.

Anglers ( apart from the stockie bashers), are not responsible for these
things, and as ever, most are quite powerless to do anything about it.

While catch and release may be of some use in management of fisheries, ( or
more accurately, in management of anglers who use them!), it will do no good
at all in the face of the now huge problems in much of Europe, and indeed,
in many cases it merely serves to sop people´s consciences, as many cite it
as the moral high ground, when in fact, it is completely irrelevant to the
problems we are now facing.

TL
MC