[jambutty]

Originally Posted by fc:stanley

How is it not a sport! :s Theres alot of skill involved in fishing and it varies with different kinds. Tbh i use barbless hooks and using these and then putting the fish nicely and calmly back into the water i dont think that is barbaric :S

Sport - an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others. As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Man versus fish cannot be a sport. Man versus man can and I suppose so can fish versus fish if you could train them to race each other. At best it can be called a contest, a rather unfair one at that.

Undoubtedly there is some skill in fishing especially in fly-fishing to entice a fish to bite on the bait but in general there is little skill involved in casting a line into the water. Some knowledge on what sort of bait to use and where to cast the hook yes, but that’s not skill.

Whether a fisherman use a barbed hook or not the fish bites on the bait and the hook penetrates its mouth, this causing an injury. Some fish fight to get off the hook thereby injuring themselves even more during the struggle.

Then it is taken out of its natural environment whilst it is maybe measured and weighed, the hook is pulled out and then the fish is placed back in the water for someone else to catch at a later date and it gets injured again. The injured fish is then prone to disease/infection until the injury heals. Other fish sensing an injury will attack the fish. So yes it is barbaric.

It is not kind to deliberately injure a fish or any other animal for that matter, or even a human. Therefore if it isn’t kind it must be unkind. Unkind is being cruel and cruel is disregarding or taking pleasure in the pain or suffering of others. Causing pain or suffering, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Fishermen may not take pleasure from inflicting pain on a fish take but they do take pleasure from fishing. Indeed there are contests to see who can catch the most weight in fish over a given period of time. Fishermen assuage their conscience by claiming that a fish doesn’t feel pain. Science has shown that fish do feel pain.

Think of it this way, if people ‘fished’ for rabbits with a rod, line and hook with a carrot on the end, the RSPCA would be down on them like a ton of bricks.